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THE STORY 

OF 

PATRIOTS' DAY 

LEXINGTON AND CONCORD 
April 19, 1775 

WITH POEMS 

BROUGHT OUT ON THE FIRST OBSERVATION OF THE ANNIVERSARY, HOLIDAY 

AND THE FORMS IN WHICH IT WAS CELEBRATED 



BY 

GEO. J. VARNEY 



BOSTON 
LEE AND SHEPARD PUBLISHERS 

10 MILK STREET 






Copyright, 1895, by Lee and Shepard 



An Rights Reserved 



The Story of Patriots' Day 



By Hxoha 

AmeHoan U-" 

Jan. IB 



typography by C. J. PETERS & SON, BOSTON. 



PRESS OF S. J. PAKKHILL & CO. 



PREFACE 

The bill abolishing the practice of appointing annu- 
ally a day of " fasting and prayer," having passed the 
Massachusetts House of Representatives, received the 
approving vote of the Senate on March i6, 1894, and 
was on the same day signed by the governor, Fred- 
eric T. Greenhalge. The bill also established the nine- 
teenth day of April as an annual holiday. The latter, 
therefore, is the legitimate successor of Fast Day, 
which had come to be observed chiefly by its desecra- 
tion. 

The first proclamation of the new holiday was issued 
on the eleventh day of April, 1894, and gave it, most 
appropriately, the name Patriots' Day. Neither the 
statute nor the proclamation prescribed any definite 
form of celebration ; consequently, there is ample scope 
and freedom for the preferences of communities and 
organizations in its observance. The proclamation was 
as follows : — 

" By an act of the Legislature, duly approved, the 
nineteenth day of April has been made a legal holiday. 



VI PREFACE 

"This is a day rich with historical and significant 
events which are precious in the eyes of patriots. It 
may well be called Patriots' Day. On this day, in 
1775, at Lexington and Concord, was begun the great 
war of the Revolution ; on this day, in 1783, just eight 
years afterwards, the cessation of war and the triumph 
of independence were formally proclaimed ; and on 
this day, in 1861, the first blood was shed in the war 
for the Union. 

"Thus the day is grand with the memories of the 
mighty struggles which in one instance brought lib- 
erty, and in the other union, to the country. 

" It is fitting, therefore, that the day should be cele- 
brated as the anniversary of the birth of Liberty and 
Union. 

" Let this day be dedicated, then, to solemn religious 
and patriotic services, which may adequately express 
our deep sense of the trials and tribulations of the 
patriots of the earlier and of the latter days, and also 
especially our gratitude to Almighty God, who crowned 
the heroic struggles of the founders and preservers of 
our country with victory and peace." 

It is earnestly and devoutly to be desired that the 
sentiments of this proclamation shall imbue every 
breast ; that patriotism shall more and more take the 



PREFACE Vll 

form of religion, holding relation, not to one nation 
only, but to all the peoples of the earth ; that the happy 
time may come when justice, forbearance, and magna- 
nimity will so prevail among men that violent and de- 
structive differences between individuals, communities, 
states, and nations will be prevented by wise tribu- 
nals chosen and empowered to adjudicate disputes and 
establish peace and amity in all lands. 

For the incidents and data of this presentation of 
the opening conflict of our Revolutionary War, I am 
indebted in part to several works, a list of which may 
be found on the last page of this volume. 

The illustrative views, except those of Lexington 
Green, Paul Revere, and the diagrams of Concord and 
Lexington, are from photographs made since 1875 ; and 
most of the objects remain the same to the present 
date. 

The view of the conflict at Lexington is from a 
copper-plate engraving made previous to December, 
1775, and accurately represents the scene as preserved 
also by history and tradition. A room in the building 
at the left (Buckman's Tavern) was used by John 
Hancock as an office while the Provincial Congress 
held its sessions in Concord. The large building in 
the middle is the first church, with the belfry on the 



VIU PREFACE 

ground near by, as it stood at the time. Another 
illustration in the poems is from a recent photograph 
of the same belfry as it now appears. 

It should be explained that the patriots' guns were 
not pointed as shown in the picture until the British 
had opened fire. In the background appear the ranks 
of the main body of the " Regulars " on the march 
towards Concord, nearly seven miles to the right of 
Lexington Green, or " Common " as it has been 
called in recent years. 

Boston, A^ri/ 3, 1895. 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

Preface v 

Introduction i 

I. The Conditions in Massachusetts in April, 1775 . . 7 

II. Lexington's Midnight Alarm 15 

III. The Massacre at Lexington 29 

IV. The Battle of Concord 38 

V. The British Retreat 53 

VI. On the Beginning of the American Revolution . . 74 

Stories of the Nineteenth of April, 1775, — 

A Minute-Man's Story of the Concord Fight . . » . . . 81 

Stories told by Men and Women Living in 1894 89 

Flags of the Revolution 104 

Poems of Patriots' Day, — 

April 19, 1775 109 

The Dawn of Lexington 113 

The Nineteenth of April 121 

A Story of an April Day 124 

The Song of the North Church Bells 127 

The Minute-Man 133 

The Buff and the Blue . 134 

Paul Revere's Ride 135 

ix 



X CONTENTS 

Poems of Patriots' Day — Continued^ — page 

Our Country 137 

The Scar of Lexington 141 

The Buzz-Saw 143 

Concord River 146 

The Nineteenth of April 150 

Lexington 151 

Celebrations of the First Patriots' Day 157 

Observance by Social Organizations of Patriots' Day . . . 164 

Military Organizations 168 

Benevolent and Religious Associations ........ 169 

Bibliography 170 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



First Church, Concord Frontispiece 

PAGE 

Paul Revere's Ride 13 

Clark House, Lexington 19 

Map of British Route, April 19, 1775 27 

The British at Lexington 34 

Scene of Operations at Concord 39 

House of Col. James Barrett, Concord 43 

Merriam's Corner, Concord 55 

Plan of Lexington 61 

MuNROE Tavern, Lexington 65 

Old Powder House, Somerville 69 

Keyes House, Concord 85 

The Flag of the Minute-men at Concord 104 

Battle Monument, Concord in 

The Belfry on Lexington Green 117 

Statue of Minute-man, Concord ....131 

Old North Church, Boston 139 

Concord North Bridge 147 

American Flag 154 



INTRODUCTION 



The 19th of April is the most important date in 
our national calendar; for on this day, a.d. 1775, 

•* By the rude bridge that arched the flood, 
Their flag to April's breeze unfurled, 
Here once the embattled farmers stood, 
And fired the shot heard round the world." 

The whole world is freer to-day, and the condition 
of mankind better, for the events of that date. Though 
the honor and the misfortune of the initiatory conflict 
of the Revolution occurred in Massachusetts, the war 
might have begun in any of the thirteen original 
States (held as colonies by England), for in all 
there existed the same love of liberty, the same in- 
dignation at the subversions and exactions of the 
king and Parliament, which had been continued, with 
brief respites, almost ever since immigration began ; 
and in nearly all there had been forcible resistance 
to the oppressions which had been found most offen- 
sive. All had become pioneers in a wild country 



2 INTRODUCTION 

under charters which gave them the same right of 
self-government which they had as citizens of Eng- 
land in their own Parliament ; or, in those instances 
where it was really not so, they had come believing 
that their English rights came with them to the new 
dominion. Before 1643 they had occasion to pro- 
test against the subjection of the English in America 
to a legislative body located in England ; and the 
Parliament of the Commonwealth, during the Pro- 
tectorate of Cromwell, had admitted the justice of 
their position. From first to last, their purpose of 
free government, such as the mother country has 
accorded to Canada, never faltered. The General 
Court of Massachusetts, while evincing its loyalty to 
the English sovereign, and consenting that America 
might be expected to contribute something toward 
the national expenses, yet insisted that taxation with- 
out representation was tyranny ; and the people in 
every way placed themselves in opposition to the 
enforcement of laws in whose making they had no 
voice. When the climax of the contest came, there 
were noble Englishmen in Parliament (among whom 
was William Pitt, Earl of Chatham) who asserted as 
strongly as themselves the right of the colonists ag 
Englishmen ; but the avaricious and tyrannical ma 



INTRODUCTION 5 

jority was in power ; and, in consequence, General 
Gage was sent over as governor of New England, 
accompanied by an army and fleet with which to 
subjugate their own kin. At Massachusetts Bay was 
the head and front of the offending colonies, and 
there the heaviest blow was aimed. The British min- 
istry believed that, with Boston under military con- 
trol, the whole country would be overawed. The 
result was quite the contrary. Everywhere in the 
colonies the people showed their sympathy with 
the Bay colony, and began to make preparations to 
defend their own rights, when the blow should fall 
upon them, by special organizations and in other 
ways, and by instituting closer communication with 
other patriotic organizations in all parts of the 
country. 

Again, on the 19th of April, 1783, the cessation of 
hostilities between the United States and England was 
proclaimed to the army by General Washington ; the 
exchange of ratifications of the preliminary articles 
of a treaty having been made. The proclamation was 
read at the head of every regiment and corps of the 
army; after which the chaplains of the several bri- 
gades, in their presence, rendered thanks to Almighty 
God. * General Washington, in his orders for the day, 



4 INTRODUCTION 

said, "The commander-in-chief, far from endeavoring 
to stifle the feelings of joy in his own bosom, offers 
his most cordial congratulations on the occasion to all 
the officers of every denomination, to all the troops of 
the United States in general, and in particular to those 
gallant and persevering men who had resolved to de- 
fend the rights of their invaded country so long as 
the war should continue. For these are the men who 
ought to be considered as the pride and boast of the 
American army ; and who, crowned with well-earned 
laurels, may soon withdraw from the field of glory to 
the more tranquil walks of civil life." 

Well, indeed, would it be for all our States to set 
apart for chaste observation that day of all in the 
year marked by the first brave resistance of our an- 
cestors as the birthday of a nation of freemen ; and 
again, after eight years of painful labors and bloody 
battles, signalized by the proclamation of the noble 
leader of its armies, that the dreadful conflict had 
been brought to a successful end, and the independ- 
ence of the United States established. 



THE STORY 



OF 



PATRIOTS' DAY 

April 19, 1775 



I 

THE CONDITIONS IN MASSACHUSETTS 
IN APRIL, 1775 

In the spring of 1775 the population of Boston was 
about seventeen thousand, though the commerce of the 
city was almost entirely destroyed. The Boston Port 
Bill, imposed by the British Parliament, went into effect 
on the 1st of June, 1774, cutting off not only its foreign 
trade, but the whole of its domestic trade by water. 
"Did a lighter attempt to land hay from the islands, 
or a boat to bring in sand from the neighboring hills, 
or a scow to freight to it lumber or iron, or a float 
to land sheep, or a farmer to carry marketing over 
the ferry-boats, the argus-eyed fleet was ready to 
see it, and prompt to capture or destroy it. Not a 
raft or a keel was allowed to approach the town 
with merchandise. Many of the stores, especially 
those upon Long Wharf, were closed. In a word, 
Boston had fairly entered on its season of suffering. 
Did its inhabitants expostulate on the severity with 
which the law was carried out ? The insulting reply 

7 



8 THE STORY OF PATRIOTS* DAY 

was that to distress them was the very object of 
the bill. As though the deeper the iron entered 
into the soul, the sooner and more complete would 
be the submission. Citizens of competence were re- 
duced to want ; the ever hard lot of the poor became 
harder. To maintain order and preserve life at so 
trying a season called for nerv^e and firmness. Work 
was to be provided when there was no demand for 
the products of labor, and relief was to be distributed 
according to the circumstances of the applicants. 
The donation committee sat every day, Sundays ex- 
cepted, to distribute the supplies. An arrangement 
was made with the selectmen by which a large num- 
ber were employed to repair and pave the streets, 
and hundreds were employed in brick-yards laid out 
on the Neck. Manufactories of various kinds were 
established ; the building of vessels and of houses 
and setting up blacksmith shops were among the pro- 
jects started."^ Tents covered its fields, cannon were 
planted on its eminences, and troops daily paraded 
in its streets. Thus, in addition to the destruction 
of its trade, it wore the aspect, and became subject 
to the vexations, of a garrisoned place. The daily 
cavalry mount of the British in December was three 

1 Frotlungham's Siege of Boston^ p, 37. 



THE CONDITIONS IN MASSACHUSETTS 9 

hundred and seventy men ; and, before the middle of 
April, General Gage had four thousand men in his 
command. Fortifications and batteries defended every 
point liable to attack. 

Boston's only connection with the mainland was 
the Neck, which joined it to Roxbury on the south ; 
and even this, at the period of the Revolution, was 
divided by a broad creek, spanned by a bridge, which 
alone saved the township from being an island. On 
both sides of the creek were strong lines of forti- 
fication, guarded by a field officer's guard of one 
hundred and fifty men. Charlestown Neck was com- 
manded by a floating battery on each side, while the 
man-of-war Somerset lay in the Charles, commanding 
the communications between Charlestown and Boston. 

During this period the patriots in Boston were 
making great efforts to send military stores into the 
country ; and, on the i8th of April, the guard at the 
Neck seized 13,425 musket cartridges and a quantity 
of bullets. The Committee of Safety and Supplies 
had deposited large quantities of military stores at 
Concord, and in March it was rumored that General 
Gage was determined to destroy them ; and as early 
as the 14th of this month, the committee voted to 
place a guard over them. On the 15th its clerk 



10 THE STORY OF PATRIOTS DAY 

was directed to establish a nightly watch, and to ar- 
range for teams to be in readiness to carry them, 
at the shortest notice, to places of safety. Couriers 
were engaged in Charlestown, Cambridge, and Rox- 
bury to alarm the neighboring towns ; for it had be- 
come known that Gage had sent officers out in 
disguise to make sketches of the roads, and ascer- 
tain the state of the towns in respect to political 
sentiment and military conditions, Concord being one 
of the places visited. Bodies of troops occasionally 
marched through the adjacent towns, in part, for in- 
timidation no doubt, but also to exercise them on long 
marches, to familiarize them with the roads, and to 
render movements of the troops less significant. 

Meantime instructions from the king and Parlia- 
ment had come to General Gage to take more ener- 
getic measures to put down the growing rebellion. 
There were indications that Boston was to be made 
a prison, and its citizens held as hostages for the 
good order of the province, while the leading pa- 
triots should be sent to England for trial for alleged 
political offences. Many people removed from the 
town, and it was becoming extremely hazardous for 
those known as patriots to remain. Samuel Adams 
and John Hancock, who had been attending the Pro- 



THE CONDITIONS IN MASSACHUSETTS II 

vincial Congress, were persuaded to leave their prop- 
erty and business in the care of others, and to stay- 
out of the city wholly for a while. Accordingly, while 
the Provincial Congress was in session at Concord, 
they made their abode with the Rev. Jonas Clark at 
Lexington. 

The General Court, which had been summoned by 
Governor Gage to meet at Salem on the 5th of 
October, 1774, was dissolved by him before the day 
arrived. Its members, pursuant to the course agreed 
upon, resolved themselves into a Provincial Congress. 
This body, on the 26th of October, adopted a plan for 
organizing and maintaining the militia. It also estab- 
lished, as executive authorities, a Committee of Safety 
and a Committee of Supplies. Committees of corre- 
spondence had for months existed in many places under 
the authority of the towns alone, and now they were 
provided with a Provincial head. Instructions were 
given that militia and minute-men should be put in 
the best posture of defence, and communication was 
opened with the other New England States in regard 
to organizing for their common security. This was 
the situation on the i8th of April, 1775. 




Paul Revere's Ride. 



II 

LEXINGTON'S MIDNIGHT ALARM 

\^Paul Revere'' s own Story of His Ride?-'\ 

Dear Sir^ — Having a little leisure, I wish to fulfil 
my promise of giving you some facts and anecdotes 
prior to the battle of Lexington, which I do not re- 
member to have seen in any *' History of the Amer- 
ican Revolution." 

In the year 1773 I was employed by the Selectmen 
of the town of Boston to carry the account of the 
Destruction of the Tea to New York ; and afterwards, 
1774, to carry their despatches to New York and 
Philadelphia for calling a Congress ; and afterwards 
to Congress several times. In the fall of 1774 and 
winter of 1775, I was one of upwards of thirty, chiefly 
mechanics, who formed ourselves into a committee 

1 The original of this document was contributed by Paul Revere to the 
Massachusetts Historical Society for its collections of 1798. Revere, at the 
date of his ride, was about forty years of age, and had seen service in the last 
French and Indian war. He was by trade a coppersmith and brass founder ; 
producing weather-yanes, bells, busts, medallions, etc. ; he also showed much 
ability as a designer an4 ^.s an engraver on copper. Many creditable examples 
of his skill in the latter still remain. 

IS 



l6 THE STORY OF PATRIOTS* DAY 

for the purpose of watching the movements of the 
British soldiers, and gaining every intelligence of 
the movements of the Tories. We held our meet- 
ings at the Green Dragon Tavern. We were so care- 
ful that our meetings should be kept secret, that every 
time we met, every person swore upon the Bible that 
they would not discover any of our transactions, but 
to Messrs. Hancock, Adams, Doctors Warren, Church, 
and one or two more. 

THE SIGNAL GIVEN. 

In the winter, towards the spring, we frequently 
took turns, two and two, to watch the soldiers, by pa- 
trolling the streets all night. The Saturday night pre- 
ceding the 19th of April, about twelve o'clock at night, 
the boats belonging to the transports were all launched 
and carried under the sterns of the men-of-war. (They 
had been previously hauled up and repaired.) We like- 
wise found that the grenadiers and light infantry were 
all taken off duty. From these movements we ex- 
pected something serious was to be transacted. On 
Tuesday evening, the 1 8th, it was observed that a 
number of soldiers were marching towards the bottom 
of the Common. About ten o'clock Dr. Warren sent 
in great haste for me, and begged that I would im- 



Lexington's midnight alarm 17 

mediately set off for Lexington, where Messrs. Han- 
cock and Adams were, and acquaint them of the 
movements, and that it was thought they were the 
objects. When I got to Dr. Warren's house, I found 
he had sent an express by land to Lexington, — a 
Mr. William Dawes. 

The Sunday before, by desire of Dr. Warren, I 
had been to Lexington to Messrs. Hancock and 
Adams, who were at the Rev. Mr. Clark's.^ I 
returned at night through Charlestown. There I 
agreed with a Colonel Conant and some other gentle- 
men, that if the British went out by water, we would 
show two lanthorns in the North Church steeple; and 
if by land, one, as a signal ; for we were apprehensive 
it would be difficult to cross the Charles River, or 
get over the Boston Neck. I left Dr. Warren, called 
upon a friend,^ and desired him to make the signals. 
I then went home, took my boots and surtout, went 
to the north part of the town where I had kept a 
boat ; two friends rowed me across Charles River, 

1 The house of Rev. Jonas Clark stood on the road to Woburn, about one- 
fourth of a mile from the main road to Concord, a short distance beyond the 
meeting-house near which the Lexington fight occurred. 

2 Robert Newman, sexton of the North (Christ) Church. The lights were 
shown but a few seconds. Surmising that the foe would also see the lights, the 
sexton hastened home and into bed ; and, sure enough, a few minutes after, in 
came some British soldiers, finding him a very sleepy man. 



l8 THE STORY OF PATRIOTS* DAY 

a little to the eastward where the Somerset man-of- 
war lay. 

It was then young flood, the ship was winding, 
and the moon was rising.^ They landed me on the 
Charlestown side. When I got into town I met Colo- 
nel Conant and several others ; they said they had 
seen our signals. I told them what was acting, and 
went to get me a horse ; I got a horse of Deacon 
Larkin. While the horse was preparing, Richard 
Devens, Esq., who was one of the Committee of 
Safety, came to me, and told me that he came down 
the road from Lexington after sundown that even- 
ing ; that he met ten British officers, all well mounted 
and armed, going up the road. 

THE RIDE OF ALARM. 

I set off upon a very good horse. It was then 
about eleven o'clock, and very pleasant. After I had 
passed Charlestov/n Neck and got nearly opposite 
where Mark^ was hung in chains, I saw two men 

1 Revere and two companions, in a boat with muffled oars, passed the British 
man-of-war Somerset within hailing distance, just five minutes before orders were 
given to stop any one leaving Boston by water. This was at about half-past ten, 
and the transports were then landing British troops at Lechmere's Point, in East 
Cambridge. 

2 A murderer who had been executed some years previously. 



LEXINGTON S MIDNIGHT ALARM 21 

on horseoack under a tree. When I got near them, 
I discovered they were British officers. One tried to 
get ahead of me, and the other to take me. I turned 
my horse very quick, and galloped towards Charles- 
town Neck, and then pushed for the Medford road. 
The one who chased me, endeavoring to cut me off, 
got into a clay pond, near where the new tavern is 
now built. I got clear of him, and went through Med- 
ford, over the bridge, up to Menotomy.^ In Medford 
I awaked the captain of the minute-men ; and after 
that, I alarmed every house, till I got to Lexington.^ 
I found Messrs. Hancock and Adams at the Rev. 
Mr. Clark's ; ^ I told them my errand and inquired 

1 Menotomy was then a part of West Cambridge, east of Arlington Heights. 
It is now a part of the town of Arlington. 

2 Lexington Green, where the patriots first brought the British to a stand, is 
about twelve miles north-west of Boston by the road. Concord is six miles 
west of Lexington, 

3 The time of arrival was a few minutes past midnight. The house was 
guarded by six of the Lexington militia. Miss Dorothy Quincy, the affianced 
bride of Mr. Hancock, was also in the house, having followed her patriot lover 
in his temporary self exile from Boston. 

Revere was stopped by the guard, who, in reply to his demand for admittance, 
told him that the family had just retired, and had requested that they should not 
be disturbed by any noise about the house. " Noise ! " exclaimed Revere, "you 
will have noise enough before long. The regulars are coming out." At this 
statement he was permitted to pass ; and on knocking at the door Mr. Clark 
opened the window and inquired who was there. Revere, without answering the 
question, said that he wished to see Mr, Hancock, Mr. Clark was wary, and 
intimated his unwillingness to admit strangers without a knowledge of their 
business there ; when Mr, Hancock (who had retired to rest), overhearing and 
recognizing Revere's voice, cried out, " Come in, Revere ; we are not afraid of 
you." 



22 THE STORY OF PATRIOTS DAY 

for Mr. Dawes ; they said he had not been there ; I 
related the story of the two officers, and supposed he 
must have been stopped, as he ought to have been 
there before me. After I had been there about half 
an hour, Mr. Dawes came ; we refreshed ourselves, 
and set off for Concord to secure the stores, &c., 
there. We were overtaken by a young Dr. Prescot, 
whom we found to be a high Son of Liberty. I told 
them of the ten officers that Mr. Devens met, and 
that it was probable we might be stopped before we 
got to Concord ; for I supposed that after night they 
divided themselves, and that two of them had fixed 
themselves in such passages as were most likely to 
stop any intelligence going to Concord. I likewise 
mentioned that we had better alarm all the inhabi- 
tants till we got to Concord ; the young doctor much 
approved of it, and said he would stop with either 
of us, for the people between that and Concord knew 
him, and would give the more credit to what we 
said. 

CAPTURED BY BRITISH SCOUTS. 

We had got nearly half-way ; Mr. Dawes and the 
doctor stopped to alarm the people of a house ; I was 
about one hundred yards ahead when I saw two men 
in nearly the same situation as those officers were, 



LEXINGTON S MIDNIGHT ALARM 23 

near Charlestown. I called for the doctor and Mr. 
Dawes to come up ; in an instant I was surrounded 
by four ; they had placed themselves in a straight 
road that inclined each way, they had taken down a 
pair of bars on the north of the road, and two of them 
were under a tree in the pasture. The doctor being 
foremost, he came up, and we tried to get past them ; 
but they being armed with pistols and swords, they 
forced us into the pasture; — the doctor jumped his 
horse over a low stone wall, and got to Concord. I 
observed a wood at a small distance, and made for 
that. When I got there, out started six officers on 
horseback, and ordered me to dismount. One of 
them, who appeared to have the command, examined 
me ; where I came from, and what my name was ? I 
told him. He asked me if I was an express ? I an- 
swered in the affirmative. He demanded what time 
I left Boston .? I told him ; and added that their 
troops had catched aground in passing the river, and 
that there would be five hundred Americans there in 
a short time, for I had alarmed the country all the 
way up. 

He immediately rode towards those who stopped us, 
when all five of them came down upon a full gallop ; 
one of them, whom I afterward found to be a Major 



24 THE STORY OF PATRIOTS DAY 

Mitchell, of the 5th regiment, clapped his pistol to my 
head, called nje by name, and told me he was going to 
ask me some questions, and if I did not give him true 
answers, he would blow my brains out. He then 
asked similar questions to those above. He then or- 
dered me to mount my horse, after searching me for 
arms. He then ordered them to advance, and lead me 
in front. When we got to the road, they turned down 
towards Lexington. When we had got about one mile, 
the Major rode up to the officer that was leading me, 
and told him to give me to the Sergeant. As soon as 
he took me, the Major ordered him, if I attempted to 
run, or anybody insulted them, to blow my brains out. 

THE LEXINGTON FIGHT. 

We rode till we got near Lexington meeting-house, 
when the militia fired a volley of guns, which appeared 
to alarm them very much. The Major inquired of me 
how far it was to Cambridge, and if there was any 
other road ? After some consultation, the Major rode 
up to the Sergeant, and asked if his horse was tired } 
He answered him, he was (he was a Sergeant of 
Grenadiers, and had a small horse) ; then, said he, 
take that man's horse. I dismounted, and the Ser- 
geant mounted my horse, when they all rode towards 



LEXINGTON S MIDNIGHT ALARM 2$ 

Lexington meeting-house. I went across the burying- 
ground, and some pastures, and came to the Rev. Mr. 
Clark's house, where I found Messrs. Hancock and 
Adams. 

I told them of my treatment, and they concluded to 
go from that house towards Woburn. I went with 
them and a Mr. Lowell, who was a clerk to Mr. Han- 
cock. When we got to the house where we intended 
to stop, Mr. Lowell and myself returned to Mr. Clark's 
to find what was going on. When we got there, an 
elderly man came in ; he said there were no British 
troops coming. Mr. Lowell and myself went towards 
the tavern, when we met a man on full gallop, who 
told us the troops were coming up the rocks. We 
afterwards met another* who said they were close by. 

Mr. Lowell asked me to go to the tavern with him, 
to get a trunk of papers belonging to Mr. Hancock. 
We went up-chamber ; and while we were getting the 
trunk, we saw the British very near, upon a full march. 
We hurried towards Mr. Clark's house. In our way 
we passed through the militia. There was about fifty. 
When we had got about one hundred yards from the 
meeting-house, the British troops appeared on both 
sides of the meeting-house. In their front was an 
officer on horseback. They made a short halt, when I 



26 THE STORY OF PATRIOTS* DAY 

saw and heard a gun fired, which appeared to be a 
pistol. Then I could distinguish two guns, and then 
a continued roar of musketry ; when we made off with 
the trunk. 



PAUL REVERE. 
Boston, /an. i, 1798. 




Map of British Route, April 19, 1775. 



Ill 

THE MASSACRE AT LEXINGTON 

The two lanterns, hung for a few moments in the 
tower of Christ Church, at the north end of primitive 
Boston, showed to the watchers in Charlestown that 
the expected British raid to destroy the military stores 
at Concord was in progress. As the moon rose, Paul 
Revere, the patriot messenger who gave the alarm, 
was in mid-stream between Boston and Charlestown ; 
and at the same moment the advance of the British, 
having embarked at the foot of the Common, were 
landing at Lechmere's Point, East Cambridge. The 
point is scarcely more than half a mile distant from 
the place where Revere mounted his horse. 

The route of the troops and that which the messen- 
ger intended to take joined at North Cambridge ; but a 
couple of British horsemen were already ahead of the 
messenger, and cut him off from this route, forcing 
him to take the road to the right, which led through 
the southern part of Medford. The routes again 
joined at Arlington Square, between Spy and Mystic 

29 



30 

ponds ; but Revere had given his alarms in Medford 
v^ithout much delay, and galloped into Arlington and 
past the critical point a safe distance in advance. 

From the landing, the route of the troops lay across 
Willis Creek to vi^hat is now Union Square in Somer- 
ville, thence up Elm Street, turning left through Beach 
Street, past the Davenport tavern into North Avenue, 
Appleton, Vine, and Main Streets, then through Ar- 
lington to Lexington line and along the main road to 
the Common, where they were first brought to a stand. 
The force now on the march consisted of about eight 
hundred infantry, under Lieutenant-Colonel Smith. 
Before they left Arlington they had caught glimpses 
of shadowy forms hovering about their flanks, and 
horsemen galloping ahead of them, and were surprised 
by the sound of alarm bells and signal guns, and at 
beacon-iires on the heights ; and, though the usual 
drum-beat had been suppressed and even conversation 
prohibited among the men, the commander perceived 
that the secret was out and the country alarmed. Im- 
pressed with the fact, he halted and detached six 
companies of light infantry and marines under Major 
Pitcairn, with orders to hasten forward to Concord and 
secure the two bridges, while he also sent messengers 
back to Boston asking a re-enforcement. 



THE MASSACRE AT LEXINGTON 3 1 

Major Pitcairn's detachment had not gone far when 
they met the mounted officers who had captured Re- 
vere and Dawes, returning at their best speed with the 
information that hundreds of men were assembling on 
the Green in Lexington to oppose the progress of the 
king's troops. This was an exaggeration ; yet the 
minute-men under Captain John Parker had turned out 
in full force as early as two o'clock, answering the roll- 
call to the number of one hundred and thirty. All 
guns were loaded, and the men remained for some time 
on parade. Then one of the messengers who had been 
sent to discover the approach of the regulars, return- 
ing, announced that they were nowhere to be seen. 
As the air was chilly, the company was thereupon dis- 
missed, with instructions to be in readiness to rally on 
the Green at the sound of the drum. 

About half-past four, in the gray light of morning, 
a scout galloped in with the news that the British 
were only a mile and a half away. Immediately the 
drum was beat, signal guns fired, and the bell rang 
out its alarm. All the militia within reach obeyed 
the call, and were soon formed in two lines on the 
northern side of the Green, the farthest from the 
approaching enemy. A Woburn minute-man, who had 
come in advance of his company, said that he counted 



32 THE STORY OF PATRIOTS DAY 

thirty-eight men in the ranks, and also that there 
were as many more who did not belong to the com- 
pany, scattered behind walls and buildings, mostly 
non-combatant lookers-on. 

The British were near enough to hear the drum 
beat to arms ; and, regarding this as a challenge, 
Major Pitcairn halted his force and ordered them to 
load and prime. Then, doubling their ranks, the reg- 
ulars marched at quick step, and with a shout, up 
to the meeting-house ^ on the corner of the Green 
nearest them. A portion of them here left the road, 
and filed off in platoons upon the wide area of the 
Green. The feeble band of minute-men was aston- 
ished at the sight of this imposing force, which 
seemed to them to be twice its real number. The 
scene has never ceased to be a wonder. There stood 
the little band of farmers on their own training-field, 
facing the veteran ranks of the king in splendid 
uniform and with complete equipment. Some of the 
farmers had seen service in the last French and 
Indian wars ; but that was a more individual war- 
fare, where each in a large degree waged battle ac- 
cording to his own judgment. The old spirit was 

1 The old meeting-house was taken down in 1793; but several of the other 
buildings which stood around the Common at the time of the conflict still occupy 
their old places. 



THE MASSACRE AT LEXINGTON 33 

in them still ; and their companions in arms of this 
day shared it with them. Again their homes, their 
property, personal and communal, and their rights 
as freemen, were threatened ; and they were both 
patriots and heroes, every one. 

Major Pitcairn rode forward at the left of his line. 
He drew a pistol,^ and, with threats and oaths, com- 
manded the Americans to lay down their arms and 
disperse. Fearing that in the excitement of the 
moment some of his men might discharge their 
guns too hastily, Captain Parker cried out, ''Don't 
fire unless you are fired on ; but if they want a 
war, let it begin here." And he threatened to shoot 
any man who attempted to leave his post. 

Pitcairn perceived that his orders were not to be 
obeyed ; and hearing the report of a gun ^ near a 
wall opposite, commanded his men to fire. They 
hesitated, and he brandished his sword and discharged 
his pistol; thereat a few in the first platoon fired, 

1 Pitcairn's pistols, a very handsome pair, were exhibited at the Lexington 
Centennial (1875), having been loaned by their owner, the widow of John P. 
Putnam of Cambridge, N. Y. These pistols have a full and authentic history. 
Pitcairn's horse had to be abandoned during the retreat ; and his equipage, 
including the pistols, fell into the hands of the Americans. The latter were 
presented to General Israel Putnam, who wore them through the war. 

2 This is believed to have been an accidental discharge of one of the rickety 
old flint-locks, which had already served more than one generation. Whatever 
the fact, it does not appear that any of the regulars were wounded by it. 



3,4 



THE STORY OF PATRIOTS DAY 



but without any apparent harm. He repeated the 
order to fire, and the whole line delivered a volley. 
Several of the gallant little company fell dead or 
wounded ; the patriot ranks were broken before they 
had fired a shot. There was no longer a question of 
their right to resist the king's troops to the death. 




Engraved in 1775. 



The British at Lexington. 



Reproduced, 1895. 



and a volley from the muskets of the minute-men 
rang out in reply. ^ 

1 In Stiles's diary, under date of Aug. 19, 1775, is this record, giving Pitcairn's 
version of the beginning of the fight : " Riding up to them, he ordered them to 
disperse; which. they not doing instantly, he turned about to order his troops to 
draw out so as to surround and disarm them. As he turned, he saw a gun in a 
peasant's hand, behind a wall, flash in the pan without going off ; and instantly, 
or very soon, two or three guns went off, by which he found his horse wounded, 
and also a man near him wounded. These guns he did not see, but believing 



THE MASSACRE AT LEXINGTON 35 

The die was cast ; the war had begun ; but with 
such overwhelming odds that further contest could 
only end in the slaughter of every American present ; 
and Captain Parker ordered a retreat. Yet there 
continued a scattering fire from men behind walls 
and trees, and from some who were unwillingly re- 
treating. Jonas Parker had often said that he never 
would run from the British. He appears not to 
have been in the company ranks. It is narrated 
that he had placed his ammunition in his hat, on 
the ground between his feet. He was wounded, and 
dropped down ; but raising himself, he fired on the 
foe; then, resting on his knees, he attempted to 
load again, when he was pierced by the bayonet of 
a redcoat. 

The halt of the British at this place did not exceed 
half an hour in duration. Two only of the regu- 
lars were wounded. Having fired the first volley, 

they could not come from his own people, he doubted not, and so asserted that 
they came from our people ; and that thus they began the attack. The impetu- 
osity of the king's troops was such that a promiscuous, uncommanded, but general, 
fire took place, which he [Pitcairn] could not prevent, though he struck his staff 
or sword downwards with all earnestness, as the signal to forbear firing." This 
seems to be a rather lame statement. It is hardly to be credited that the regu- 
lars, accustomed to the strict discipline of the British army, and having for 
months been under daily drill, should have been so little under the control of 
their chief officer as to fire a volley or two when they were only ordered to draw 
out and disarm the Americans. The account, as given in the narrative, is sup- 
ported by many depositions taken witlun the sumuier following. 



36 THE STORY OF PATRIOTS' DAY 

they were so enveloped by the smoke of their guns 
that it was impossible for the patriots to take aim 
at any one of them. 

Two of the Americans were killed after they had 
left the Common, a few of the red-coats having pur- 
sued the flying minute-men and others up the Bed- 
ford Road. Altogether seven Americans were killed, 
and nine were wounded, almost half the number 
who stood their ground on the Common.^ 

" Were these men true? We ask not were they brave, — 
Men who their lives thus to their country gave ! 

When such men fall or put their foes to flight. 
Resisting wrong or battling for the right ; 
When they of freedom's army lead the van, 
Or fall as martyrs in the cause of man, — 
Man's heart hath never willingly forgot 
The holy day, the consecrated spot. 
Marked by an act of valor or of faith. 
Or by a nobler deed or noble death." 

1 John Symonds with three others had, on the approach of the British, gone 
into the meeting-house for a supply of powder. They had got two half-casks 
from the upper loft into the gallery, when the British reached the Green. Two 
of them, Caleb" Harrington and Joseph Comee, resolved at every hazard to escape 
from the house and join the company. Harrington was killed in the attempt at 
the west end of the meeting-house ; Comee, finding himself cut off from the com- 
pany, ran, under a shower of balls, — one of which struck him in the arm, — to 
the Munroe house [near the church] ; and, passing through the house, made his 
escape at the back door. A third secreted himself in the opposite gallery ; while 
Symonds loaded and cocked his gun, and, laying down, placed the muzzle upon 
the open cask of powder, determined to blow up the British if they should 
enter the gallery, choosing to destroy his own life rather than fall into their 
hands. — Hudson'' s History of Lexington, p. i8o. 



THE MASSACRE AT LEXINGTON 3/ 

Some of the red-coats went into the houses in 
the vicinity of the Green for a drink ; but, with a 
few exceptions, those who had been engaged in 
the fight soon re-formed, fired a volley, and gave 
three huzzas for their victory ! Colonel Smith, with 
the main body of the troops, had come up, and all 
proceeded to Concord without further interruption. 
But the Americans, at different times and places that 
morning, captured seven of the regulars, the first 
prisoners taken in the Revolutionary War. 



IV 

THE BATTLE OF CONCORD 

Concord, in 1775, was the largest town in the colony 
above tide-water. In its literary, political, and social 
aspect it was not excelled by any except Boston. 
The village at the centre then contained a church, a 
court-house, a jail, a grist-mill, and two or three small 
factories. A few houses stood mostly in groups along 
the main road from Boston, being most numerous some 
half a mile south-east of where it crossed the river. 
The 'road enters the town from the south-east along 
the side of a hill which commences on the right of it, 
about a mile below the court-house. This hill rises 
from thirty to fifty feet above the level of the highway, 
and terminates a little past the north-western angle of 
the old square. The top of the hill is a plain, and on 
it stood the liberty-pole. The Concord River (main 
branch) flows sluggishly in a serpentine course through 
the town on the north-west side of the village, passing 
about half a mile from its centre. The old South 
Bridge was on the road running slightly south of west 

38 



."^ 






>£i^M 



fiiuenicAi 



"BEOFORO) 




rsuoeuAY 



*^" 



Scene of Operations at Concord. 



THE BATTLE OF CONCORD 4I 

from the square, while a road running northward and 
bending westward crossed the river at the old North 
Bridge. From here the road ran in an indirectly 
western course to Colonel James Barrett's, about two 
miles from the village. 

Colonel Barrett had been a member of the General 
Court, and was at this time member of the Provincial 
Congress. By direction of this body he was in charge 
of the military supplies in Concord, a considerable 
quantity being stored at his mill and house. He was 
also authorized to superintend the movements of the 
militia, if called into action.^ 

" It was between one and two o'clock in the morning 
when the quiet community of Concord were aroused 
from their slumbers by the sound of the church bell. 
The Committee of Safety, the military officers, and the 
prominent citizens quickly assembled for consultation. 
Messengers were despatched toward Lexington for in- 
formation ; the militia and minute-men were formed 
in rank on the customary parade ground near the 
meeting-house ; and the inhabitants, with a portion of 
the militia, under the direction of Colonel James Bar- 
rett, zealously labored in removing the military stores 

1 The organization of the militia was at this time incomplete, both in system 
and officers, and without authority from the general government, except partially 
in a few cases. " Minute-men" were specially enrolled, to march at a tniniitc's 
notice. 



42 THE STORY OF PATRIOTS DAY 

into the woods and other out-of-the-way places for 
safety. Meanwhile, their patriotic minister, the Rev. 
William Emerson, mingled with the people, and gave 
counsel and comfort to the terrified women and chil- 
dren." 

One of the messengers returned with the startling 
intelligence that the regulars had fired upon the 
militia at Lexington, and were now on the march to 
Concord. It was determined to resist them; accord- 
ingly, a portion of the force marched off to meet the 
advancing column. A part of the troops from Lin- 
coln — the minute-men under command of Captain 
William Smith, and the militia under Captain Samuel 
Farrar — soon joined the Concord companies. Cap- 
tains Minot and Nathan Barrett, who had remained 
at the centre, now led their companies upon the long 
hill (then called Merriam's Hill) to its eastern end. 
Scarcely had they taken position when the companies 
which had been sent down the road returned with the 
information that the number of the British was triple 
that of the Americans. Very soon the regulars ap- 
peared on the road coming down Brooks's Hill, their 
arms glistening, and their red coats glowing in the 
rising sun. Their movement was very rapid ; and 
a line of their infantry filed off towards the hill on 



THE BATTLE OF CONCORD 45 

which the Americans were posted. The 'militia then 
fell back to the liberty-pole, opposite the meeting- 
house. The regulars followed them, but halted when 
they had come within gunshot. There was little time 
for deliberation. It is evident that the patriot lead- 
ers had hoped to turn the British back by displays 
of force merely, — not expecting that the number of 
regulars would be so large. The militia again fell 
back in order to the burial-ground on a lower emi- 
nence westward. They were here joined by Colonel 
Barrett, the field-officer, who had been attending to 
the removal of the military stores. He is reported 
to have addressed them with much feeling, but in 
a very firm and inspiring manner ; and he enjoined 
them not to fire upon the regulars unless first fired 
upon by them. 

Some were now in favor of resisting the farther 
advance of the British ; while others prudently advised 
to again fall back, and to delay resistance until other 
companies should arrive. Approving the latter policy. 
Colonel Barrett ordered the militia to retire over 
the North Bridge to Punkatasset Hill, a commanding 
eminence a short distance north-westward of the bridge, 
and nearly a mile and a half from Concord centre. As 
they reached the hill, a column of the enemy was seen 



46 THE STORY OF PATRIOTS' DAY 

advancing from the village ; and Colonel Barrett gal- 
loped off to his residence about a mile south-west of 
the bridge, on another road, to hasten the removal 
of other military stores. He had barely reached the 
hill on his return before the column had crossed the 
bridge, and turned along the road towards his house 
and mill. 

The column of regulars which had followed the 
militia along the hill, descended to the square, while 
Colonel Smith and Major Pitcairn entered the burial- 
ground, and examined with their glasses the position 
of the Americans. Very soon the disposition of the 
troops was decided upon. The grenadiers,^ under 
the immediate command of Lieutenant-Colonel Smith, 
remained at the centre, while a company under Cap- 
tain Pole was sent to hold the South Bridge,^ and six 

1 Originally, companies who threw hand-grenades ; consequently soldiers of 
superior stature, intelligence, and discipline to the light infantry. Their capn 
tains were usually mounted ; and the rank and file held themselves as of greater 
dignity than other foot-soldiers. In Boston tliey were often nicknamed 
" grannies." 

2 It appears as though orders had been issued to the Sudbury company to 
march to Colonel Barrett's to guard the stores there ; and their nearest road was 
by way of the South Bridge. But Captain Pole was ahead of them there. In 
that company was Deacon Josiah Haynes, eighty years of age. He v/as urgent 
for an attack to be made on the British at the bridge, but the judgment of the 
officers was against it. On the retreat of the regulars, he, with the rest of the 
company, pursued the regulars with ardor as far as Lexington, where he was 
killed by a musket-ball. 



THE BATTLE OF CONCORD 4/ 

companies under Captain Parsons were sent by way 
of the North Bridge to destroy the stores on the west 
side of the river. This was the column which came 
near intercepting Colonel Barrett. About half the 
force was left under command of Captain Laurie to 
guard the bridge ; while Captain Parsons, with the 
other companies, proceeded to Barrett's mill to de- 
stroy the military supplies in that vicinity. 

The British met with but partial success in the work 
of destruction, in consequence of the removal and 
concealment of the stores.^ In the centre of the 
town the troops broke open about sixty barrels of 
flour — nearly half of which, however, was saved ; 
knocked off the trunnions of three iron twenty four- 
pound cannon, threw a few cannon-balls into the mill- 
pond, and burnt sixteen new carriage-wheels and a 
few barrels of wooden trenchers and spoons. They cut 
down the liberty-pole, and set the court-house on fire.^ 

1 At Colonel Barrett's the British burned a number of carriages for cannon. 
The officers very politely offered to pay Mrs. Barrett. for the food she furnished 
them ; but she refused it, saying, " We are commanded to feed our enemy, if he 
hunger." They asserted that she should have good treatment, but that they 
would have to search her house, and destroy all public stores. There were in 
the garret the small articles belonging with cannon,- also musket-balls, flints, cut- 
lasses, and other articles ; but Mrs. Barrett had so covered them with quantities 
of feathers that they were not discovered, 

2 The fire in the court-house was soon quenched, however, by the heroic exer- 
tions of the widow Moulton, whose own house stood near by. " While in the 
village the British seized and abused many persons, aged men who were not 



48 THE STORY OF PATRIOTS' DAY 

Meanwhile minute-men from the neighboring towns 
had been arriving at the rendezvous, Punkatasset Hill, 
until they numbered about four hundred and fifty. 
They were formed into line by Joseph Hosmer, who, 
in the emergency, was acting as adjutant. It is im- 
possible to state with accuracy what companies were 
present at this hour. There were minute and militia 
men from Carlisle, Chelmsford, Westford, Littleton, 
and Acton. The minute-men from the latter place 
were under the command of Captain Isaac Davis, a 
brave and energetic man. 

Most of the operations of the British were in view 

armed. Among them was Deacon Thomas Barrett, brother of the Colonel. In 
his buildings there was a gun-factory carried on by his son, Mr. Samuel Barrett, 
and men employed by him. The Deacon was a man noted for his piety and 
goodness, and for his mildness of disposition. Not appearing terrified nor in- 
sulting, he began seriously to remonstrate against their violence, and the unkindly 
treatment of the mother country against her colonies. When they threatened to 
kill him as a rebel, he calmly said, they would better save themselves the trouble, 
for he was old and would soon die of himself. Upon which they replied, ' Well, 
old daddy, you may go in peace.' " — Rev. Ezra Ripley's History of the Fight 
at Concord. Another incident was more amusing. As Lieutenant-Colonel 
Smith, the British commander, was on the point of entering the tavern of Cap- 
tain Ephraim Jones in Concord village, the proprietor came rushing round the 
corner of the house to escape some soldiers, looking backward, and struck with 
much force against the huge body of the officer. (Colonel Smith weighed between 
two and three hundred pounds, and is said to have been very fat and ungainly.) 
Both men rolled on the ground together. The officer thought that the collision 
was intended by the innkeeper, and immediately placed him under arrest. He 
demanded liquor, — most of which, of course, had been hidden in apprehension of 
the coming of the regulars. Our innkeeper had the advantage here, and used 
it ; and npt a drop could the officer get until he set his prisoner at liberty. 



THE BATTLE OF CONCORD 49 

from the elevated ground of the rendezvous, and fires 
they had set were visible in several directions. The 
dislodgement of the regulars from the North Bridge 
was under consideration as Captain Davis came up 
from an inspection of that vicinity. Captain William 
Smith of Lincoln volunteered to make the attempt 
with his company. " I haven't a man that is afraid to 
go," added Captain Davis. Colonel Barrett then de- 
cided on the attack, and selected Major John Buttrick 
as leader in this critical movement ; and Lieutenant- 
Colonel Robinson volunteered, and accompanied him 
as subordinate. They were ordered to march to the 
bridge and pass it, but were not to fire on the king's 
troops unless the latter fired upon them. 

It was nearly ten o'clock in the morning when the 
body of Provincials arrived near the river. The Acton 
company was in front, with Major Buttrick, Lieutenant- 
Colonel Robinson, and Captain Davis at their head. 
Captains David Brown, Charles Miles, Nathan Barrett, 
and William Smith, with their companies, and parts of 
other companies, fell into line. They marched in 
double file, and with trailed arms. 

The British guard, about one hundred in number, 
were on the west side of the river ; but on seeing the 
Americans approaching, they crossed to the east side, 



50 THE STORY OF PATRIOTS' DAY 

formed as if for a fight, and began to take up the 
planks of the bridge. The American column was pro- 
ceeding along a road parallel to the river which ran 
into the road across the bridge ; and Major Buttrick 
shouted to the regulars, remonstrating against the 
demolition they were attempting ; and he ordered his 
men to hasten their advance. When the head of the 
column had almost reached the turn, the res-ulars beo-an 
to fire solitary shots toward them. This was the first 
firing at Concord.^ The shots were few in number, 
and did no execution ; but others followed with double 
effect. Luther Blan chard, a fifer in the Acton com- 
pany, was the first wounded ; in a following discharge 
Captain Isaac Davis and Abner Hosmer, of the same 
company, were killed. 

On seeing the British fire take effect, Major But- 
trick exclaimed, " Fire, fellow-soldiers ! for God's 
sake, fire ! " The Americans then fired for the first 
time, the discharge killing one, and wounding several 

1 In regard to the firing at Concord Bridge, the Rev. WilUam Emerson 
says : " We received the fire of the enemy in three several and separate discharges 
of their pieces, before it was returned by our commanding officer. Captain 
James Barrett and several others testified that two of the militia were killed and 
several wounded before the fire was returned." Captain Nathan Barrett and 
twenty-three other men say that " when we got near the bridge they fired on 
our men, first three guns, one after the other, and then a considerable num- 
ber more; upon which, and not before, we fired upon the regulars, and they 
retreated." 



THE BATTLE OF CONCORD 5 1 

of the enemy. The fire continued for a few moments 
only, when the British retreated in great confusion. 
They were met by a detachment sent out to support 
them, but all returned to the centre together. 

The Americans followed over the bridge, a portion 
of them turning to the left and ascending the hill on 
the east of the main road, while another portion re- 
turned to Punkatasset, carrying with them the dead 
bodies of the gallant Davis and Hosmer. Military 
order was now discarded. Many had been on duty all 
the morning, and were hungry and fatigued ; and they 
seized the opportunity to take necessary refreshment. 

This was the situation when Captain Parsons, having 
heard the firing at the bridge, hastened back from 
Barrett's, repassed the bridge, and saw the bodies of 
the fallen regulars.^ It would have been easy for the 
Americans to cut off this party ; but war had not 
been declared, and, as yet, the leaders were acting on 

1 The wounds of one of the redcoats who fell at the bridge gave rise to the 
charge in General Gage's report of this expedition that the Provincials " scalped 
the wounded and cut off their ears." The manner in which this soldier came 
to his death is said to be as follows : A boy employed at the " old manse," 
which stands near the bridge, came down to the scene of the skirmish after it 
was over. One of the wounded regulars was sitting up, and while the boy was 
at the water's edge bending over to dip some water, the redcoat shot at him. 
He missed the mark, but the act made the boy so angry that he ran and 
gave the fellow a blow on the head with a hatchet. The manse was at this 
time occupied by the Rev. William Emerson, who was extremely grieved at 
the occurrence. 



52 THE STORY OF PATRIOTS DAY 

the defensive merely. Captain Pole, at the South 
Bridge, and other small parties not so far away, were 
recalled by the sound of the guns to the centre. 
Lieutenant-Colonel Smith, having concentrated his 
troops and put them in a position of defence, gave 
his efforts to procuring conveyances for the wounded. 
This was not accomplished, and the retreat begun, until 
nearly two hours after the skirmish at the bridge, — 
a loss of time that nearly proved fatal to the entire 
British force.^ 

1 The time of the movements of the British troops was nearly as follows : 
Departure from Boston, 10.30 p.m. on the i8th (British account) ; arrival at 
Lexington, 4.30 a.m. on the 19th (Gordon) ; halt of twenty minutes at Lexing- 
ton (Phinney) ; arrival at Concord, 7 a.m., " about an hour after sunrise " (Bar. 
rett's deposition) ; skirmish at the bridge, " between nine and ten '' (Brown's diary, 
in Adams's account, and deposition No. 18, 1775, say " nearly ten") ; left Con- 
cord at 12 m. ; met Percy's brigade at two (British letters) ; arrived at Charles- 
town at sunset. 



V 

THE BRITISH RETREAT 

While the events which marked the beginning of a 
new nation were transpiring in Lexington and Con- 
cord, the news of the hostile march of the British 
troops was spreading rapidly through the country ; 
and scores of communities, animated by the same 
patriotic and determined spirit, were sending out their 
representatives to the battle-field. The minute-men, 
organized and ready for action in numerous towns, 
promptly obeyed the summons to parade. Perhaps 
they waited, in some instances, to receive a parting 
blessing from their minister, or to take leave of weep- 
ing friends ; but before the British had been driven 
from the bridge, all the roads leading to Concord were 
thronged by minute-men hurrying to the scene of 
action. They carried, in most instances, the old flint- 
lock musket that had fought the Indian ; with them 
was the drum that beat at Louisburg ; and they were 
led by men who had served under Wolfe at Quebec. 
As they drew near the scenes of conflict they learned 

53 



54 THE STORY OF PATRIOTS DAY 

that the regulars had been the aggressors in both 
cases — " had fired first ; " and they were deeply stirred 
by the slaughter of their countrymen. The British 
had crossed the fatal line ; and if any American still 
counselled forbearance, moderation, peace, his words 
were thrown away. The assembling bands felt that 
the hour had come to hurl back the insulting charges 
on their courage that had been repeated for years, and 
to make good the solemn words of their public bodies ; 
and they determined to attack the invaders of their 
soil wherever found. 

The return of the regulars to Boston commenced 
about twelve o'clock. The main body marched in the 
road, its right being protected by a brook, while the 
left was covered by a strong flank guard that kept the 
height of land that borders the Lexington road leading 
to Merriam's Corner. They soon perceived how thor- 
oughly the country had been alarmed. As one of 
them wrote, " it seemed that men had dropped from 
the clouds," so full were the roads and the hills of 
minute-men.^ The Provincials left the high grounds 

1 Ensign De Berniere, who had made explorations and diagrams of the towns 
about Boston, and was the guide of the British on this occasion, says that Cap- 
tain Laurie was attacked by about " fifteen thousand rebels " at the bridge ; and 
yet " they let Captain Parsons, with his company, return, and never attacked us." 
This is the wildest of exaggerations. According to numerous depositions taken 
by the Provincial authorities during the same season, and at least one trust- 



THE BRITISH RETREAT 57 

near the North Bridge and went across the fields and 
pastures (the '' Great Fields ") to the Bedford road, 
which came in from the north-east at Merriam's Cor- 
ner, a mile or more from the centre. Here they were 
joined by the Reading minute-men under Major Brooks 
(afterwards governor) ; and a few minutes later. Col- 
onel William Thompson led up a body of militia from 
Billerica. Minute-men from other towns also came up 
in season to fire upon the British as they left Concord. 
The Reading company discovered the British flank 
guard coming over the long hill, and halted in silence 
some twenty rods short of Merriam's Corner, the reg- 
ulars having also approached to about the same dis- 
tance from that point. They marched down the hill 
with slow and steady step, without music or an audi- 
ble word. They numbered perhaps a hundred men. 
Reaching the main road, they passed over a small 
bridge near the corner, then suddenly faced about and 
delivered a volley upon the Americans. They over- 
shot, and no one is known to have been hurt. This 

worthy British authority, the number was less than five hundred. One British 
letter of April 30, says : " It was thought there were about six thousand [armed 
Provincials during the retreat] at first, and at night double that number." An- 
other letter says : " The rebels were monstrous numerous, and surrounded us on 
every side ; when they came up we gave them a smart fire, but they never woilld 
engage us properly."' This conduct must have seemed grievous in the extreme 
to the martinet, a character which the grenadiers largely bore. 



58 THE STORY OF PATRIOT'S DAY 

was not apparent at the moment, however, and the 
militia returned the fire, two of the regulars falling 
dead near the brook. 

The battle was now reopened, and a severe fire was 
poured upon the foe from every favorable position. 
The Sudbury company, under Captain Nathaniel Cud- 
worth, came up in the woods on the south, and attacked 
them near Hardy's Hill; and there was a severe skir- 
mish on the old road below the Brooks tavern. Here 
the woods lined both sides of the road where the Brit- 
ish had to pass, and a minute-man was behind almost 
every tree. When the enemy ordered out a flank 
guard to dislodge them it was merely offering the 
patriots a better mark. The conflict was short and 
sharp ; and for three or four miles along these woody 
defiles the regulars suffered fearfully. 

The town of Woburn, lying on the north-east of 
Lexington, had "turned out extraordinary;" sending 
to the scene of action, with Major Loammi Baldwin, 
a well-armed force one hundred and eighty strong. 
They reached Tanner Brook, in Lincoln, ahead of 
the regulars, and there scattered, firing from the 
trees and walls ; then, moving on, they made re- 
peated attacks from new points. Before the British 
had re-entered Lexington, Captain Parker's brave 



THE BRITISH RETREAT 59 

company, which had made the first fight on Lexing- 
ton Green, appeared in the field and did efficient ser- 
vice. "The enemy," said Colonel Baldwin, "marched 
very fast, and left many dead and wounded, and a 
few tired." Eight of the dead were buried in the 
Lincoln graveyard. Of the Americans, Captain Jon- 
athan Wilson of Bedford, Nathaniel Wyman of Bille- 
rica, and Daniel Thompson of Woburn, were killed 
here. At Fiske's Hill, as they entered Lexington, a 
mounted officer was killed, and Lieutenant-Colonel 
Smith, the commander, was wounded in the leg.^ 

When within a short distance of Lexington Green, 
the regulars again suffered severely from the close 
pursuit and sharp fire of the Provincials. Their am- 
munition was failing, while their light companies 
were so fatigued as to be almost unfitted for service, 
being too much exhausted to send out flankers. The 
large number of wounded caused great confusion, and 
many of the troops rather ran than marched. The 
officers tried in vain to restore discipline. The con- 
fusion increased under their efforts, until, placing 

1 At the foot of Fiske's Hill occurred a personal contest between a British 
soldier and James Hayward of Acton. The Briton raised his gun, with the 
remark, " You are a dead man." — " And so are you," answered Hayward. 
Both fired ; the Briton was killed and Hayward mortally wounded, though he 
lived until the next day. 



60 THE STORY OF PATRIOTS* DAY 

themselves in front, they threatened the men with 
death if they advanced. It was a desperate effort, 
made under a heavy fire, but it succeeded in partially 
restoring order.^ 

It was now almost two o'clock in a day of unusual 
heat ; and the detachment must have soon surrendered 
had not re-enforcements been at hand. Percy's brigade 
met the harassed regulars half a mile toward Boston 
east of the Lexington meeting-house, and received 
the routed and exhausted column in a hollow square.^ 
The re-enforcement consisted of three regiments of 
infantry and two divisions of marines, with two field- 
pieces, under Lord Percy. They had left Boston at 
nine o'clock,^ marching out through Roxbury to the 

1 It was not far from this point that two or three Provincials behind a pile 
of rails fired on a splendidly mounted officer, who, in directing the troops, had 
come near them. The officer instantly fell, or was thrown by a violent move- 
ment of the horse, which then ran directly toward the Provincials and was cap- 
tured. It is nearly certain that this officer was Major Pitcairn, who was not 
wounded, but was thrown, and had his arm broken by the fall. 

2 Letters to England from officers who were with the British troops on this 
occasion, testify to the critical situation of Lieutenant-Colonel Smith's detach- 
ment, when met by Percy's brigade, and some admit that he must have surren- 
dered. A British historian (Stedman) says of the soldiers, " They were so much 
exhausted with fatigue that they were obliged to lie down for rest on the ground, 
their tongues hanging out of their mouths, like those of dogs after a chase.'' 

3 The British Coiiduct of the American War makes the following statement 
regarding the delay of this re-enforcement : " Lieutenant-Colonel Smith's party 
would have been destroyed had not Lord Percy joined him, and even he was 
almost too late from two stupid blunders we committed. The general ordered 
the first brigade under arms at four in the morning ; these orders, the evening 







Americans 
3 British] 



Plan of Lexington. 



THE BRITISH RETREAT 63 

time of ''Yankee Doodle." Their course lay over 
the Charles River by the old bridge, nearly opposite 
Harvard College. To impede their march the select- 
men of Cambridge had ordered the planks removed 
from the bridge. This was done ; but, instead of 
being carried away, the planks were piled beside the 
road near by. The troops soon had them mostly in 
place, and the column passed without much delay. 
The provision teams were, however, so long detained 
that they lost the protection of the main body, and 
were captured by the Americans at West Cambridge.^ 

before, were carried to the brigade major's ; he was not at home ; the orders were 
left ; no inquiry was made after him ; he came home late ; his servant forgot to 
tell him there was a letter on his table. Four o'clock came, no brigade appeared ; 
at five o'clock an express from Smith, desiring a re-enforcement, produced an in- 
quiry ; the above discovery was made ; at six o'clock part of the brigade got on 
the parade ; there they waited, expecting the marines ; at seven, no marines 
appearing, another inquiry commenced ; they said they had received no orders ; 
it was asserted they had ; in the altercation it came out that the order had been 
addressed to Major Pitcairn, who commanded the marines, and left at his quar- 
ters, though the gentlemen concerned in this business ought to have remembered 
that Pitcairn had been despatched the evening before with the grenadiers and 
light infantry under Lieutenant-Colonel Smith, This double mistake lost us 
from four till nine o'clock, the time we marched off to support Colonel Smith." 

1 Later in the day the " home guard " in Watertown showed its strength and 
prowess. In this town was the home of Lydia Warren Barnard, a woman noted 
in the town for her strength and determination. Her husband was out as a 
minute-man, — the able-bodied men, it is stated, had all gone. Sometime in the 
afternoon several neighbors of her own sex came running to her house, and call- 
ing, " Mrs. Barnard ! there's a redcoat coming! " Running out she saw, halted 
amidst a group of women and old men, a British soldier on horseback, who was 
inquiring his way to Boston. He claimed to be wounded, but in the absence of 



64 THE STORY OF PATRIOTS* DAY 

Percy had brought two field-pieces, one of which 
was immediately mounted on the high ground in the 
angle made with the route by the Woburn road, 
while the other was placed on another eminence near 
the rear of his column, on the opposite side of the 
road ; the Munroe tavern, used temporarily by the 
British as a hospital, was a little farther back on 
the same side. These guns kept the Americans in 
check for about half an hour, which afforded the 
British force time for rest and refreshments. Though 
the regulars numbered about eighteen hundred, of 
undoubted bravery and veteran discipline, Percy made 
no attempt to turn upon his assailants to make good 
the boastful insults of his military associates.^ 

sufficient evidence, they took him, rather, for a messenger. Excited and anxious 
in regard to their husbands, fathers, and sons, tlie group were ready themselves 
to do battle against the enemy. The sight of this redcoat " stirred her Warren 
blood " to action. Striding through the group, she grasped the bridle and or- 
dered the soldier to dismount. As he disregarded her command, she pulled him 
to earth in a moment. *' You villain ! " she exclaimed, shaking him vigorously ; 
" how do I know but what you have been killing some of my folks ? " He pro- 
tested that he had not fired a shot. *' Let me see your cartridge-box ! " She 
examined it, and found several places empty. At this she shook him still more 
violently ; and, her anger increasing, she grasped his weapons in such a threaten- 
ing manner that his fears overcame his courage, and he fell upon his knees and 
begged for his life. She let him get up, and placed him in charge of the men 
who had been attracted to the scene. He was subsequently exchanged. The 
horse he rode was a splendid animal, and his owner was found to be a Cambridge 
man. The steed had been ridden out by a patriot to give the alarm, and was 
captured by the British. 

1 Lord Percy afterwards said that he never saw anything equal to the intre- 
pidity of the New England minute-men. — Reiftonbrances^ vol. i., iii. 



THE BRITISH RETREAT 6/ 

The Provincials continued to harass them as they 
toiled over the Heights and between the ponds in 
Menotomy, or West Cambridge, now Arlington. 
Here the skirmishing again became sharp and bloody, 
and the troops increased their atrocities.^ 

The Danvers company, marching in advance of the 
Essex regiment, had taken position to attack the 
enemy, some behind trees on the side of the hill, 
others in a walled enclosure, further protecting them- 
selves by erecting a breastwork of bunches of shingles. 
The British passed in solid column on their right, 
while a large flank guard came up on their left. 
They were thus surrounded, and many were killed 
and wounded. The British also had many killed or 
wounded in this vicinity. They entered what is now 

1 Jason Russell of this place, an invalid and a non-combatant, was barbar- 
ously killed in his own house. Near the foot of the rocks a mother was killed 
while nursing her infant. Others were driven from their dwellings, and these 
robbed of whatever attracted the cupidity of the marauders. In Somerville 
(then forming the western part of Charlestown), a family returning to their 
deserted house found a red-coated soldier lying dead across the drawer of a 
bureau which he had been ransacking. The diary of the British Lieutenant 
John Barker states that from Lexington to Charlestown Neck nearly every 
house was forcibly entered, and " all that were found in the houses put to 
death." Under date of April 25, he wrote of the regulars on this retreat, 
" By their eagerness and inattention they killed many of our own people ; and 
the plundering was shameful." It was, no doubt. Lord Percy's marines who 
committed these outrages ; as the soldiers who had shed the first blood at Lex- 
ington and Concord were now too nearly exhausted to attempt anything more 
than getting back to a place of security. 



6S THE STORY OF PATRIOTS* DAY 

Elm Street, Somerville, (then West Charlestown) on 
the run, receiving a hot fire from the minute-men 
in the woods near by. Lord Percy now planted his 
two field-pieces on the north-westerly spur of Spring 
Hill, and cannonaded the coverts for a few minutes ; 
but the regulars were soon in full retreat again, 
passing hurriedly down Milk Row. Some of the 
hottest firing of the day from the Americans occurred 
in the vicinity of Prospect Hill ; and here Percy 
again planted his cannon, but with little effect.^ 

The situation of the regulars was now critical in the 
extreme. By the orders of Dr. Warren, the planks of 
the bridge over the Charles had been taken up, this 
time effectually; but the British, for some reason, took 
the road to Charlestown Neck. Their field-pieces had 
lost their terror to the Americans, and they had but 
few rounds of ammunition left, even for the muskets; 
while the large number of wounded was a distressing 
obstruction to their progress. The main body of the 



1 Several Americans were killed in this vicinity by flanking parties of the 
regulars. On the side of the hill two minute-men were firing on the redcoats 
from behind a wall, when they were suddenly cut off by a flanking-party. The 
eldest, James Miller, was urged by his companion to escape, but replied, " I am 
too old to run;" and he continued firing at the approaching foe until he fell, 
pierced by thirteen bullets. Near Charlestown Neck a boy was killed by the 
British ; and, on the other hand, an officer of the Sixty-fourth Regiment was 
captured. 



THE BRITISH RETREAT 7I 

Provincials hung closely on their rear ; a strong force 
was advancing upon them from Roxbury, Dorchester, 
and Milton ;' and Colonel Pickering, with the Essex 
militia, seven hundred strong, threatened to cut off 
their retreat to Charlestown peninsula. General Wash- 
ington, reviewing this day's work, wrote, " If the re- 
treat had not been as precipitate as it was, — and God 
knows it could not well have been more so, — the 
ministerial troops must have surrendered, or been 
totally cut off."i 

Charlestown had, since early morning, presented 
scenes of intense excitement and confusion, as the 
occurrences of the day successively became known. 
Dr. Warren (" General " at the Battle of Bunker Hill),^ 
had ridden through the town giving intelligence of 
the slaughter at Lexington, and a large number of the 
citizens departed to take a part in the conflict, so that 
the greater portion of those remaining were women 

1 Sparks's Washmgton, vol. ii., p. 407. 

2 It is not to be supposed that Dr. Warren and other patriots were either 
secluded or idle during the day ; on the contrary, Warren and General Heath of 
Roxbury were directing the militia during the latter part of the retreat, when- 
ever they could be got at. It is said (I know not on what authority), that, before 
Percy's arrival. Commander Smith desired to surrender, but could find no officer 
to whom the proffer might be made. Certainly a white flag would have been 
respected by every American, and an officer competent to receive the surrender 
might readily have been found in the truce which a white flag would have insti- 
tuted. 



72 THE STORY OF PATRIOTS DAY 

and children. In the afternoon Hon. James Russell 
of Charlestown received a warning note from General 
Gage to the effect that, if a single man more went out 
armed, *'the most disagreeable consequences might be 
expected." 

Many families prepared to leave, and every vehicle 
was employed to carry away their most valuable effects. 
Reports had reached them that " the Britons were mas- 
sacring: the women and children." Some remained in 
the streets, speechless with terror ; some ran to the 
clay-pits back of Breed's Hill, where they passed the 
niofht. But the officers directed the women and chil- 
dren to go into their houses and they would be safe; 
and only required of them to pass out drink to the 
soldiers. 

The main body of the British during the evening 
occupied Bunker Hill, forming a line fronting the 
Neck. Additional troops were also sent over from 
Boston. Guards were stationed in all parts of the 
town, and everything during the night was quiet. 
Some of the wounded were carried over immediately, 
in the boats of the Somerset, to Boston. The next 
day General Pigot was placed in command in Charles- 
town, when the troops were all transferred to Boston, 
and returned to their quarters. 



THE BRITISH KETJIEAT 73 

The British loss in the expedition to Concord 
was seventy-three killed, one hundred and seventy- 
wounded, and twenty-six missing, — the latter being 
mostly taken prisoners by the Americans. Of this 
loss eighteen were officers, ten were sergeants, two 
drummers, and two hundred and forty were privates. 
The prisoners were treated with great humanity ; and 
General Gage was notified that his own surgeons, if 
he desired, might attend those who were wounded. 

The American loss was forty-nine killed, thirty-nine 
wounded, and five missing. A committee of the 
Provincial Congress estimated the value of the private 
property destroyed by the British in Lexington to 
be ^1761 i^s. ^d, ; in Concord, £2'j/^ i6s. jd. ; in Cam- 
bridge, ^120 22>s. yd. The General Court indemnified 
all losses. 



VI 

ON THE BEGINNING OF THE AMERICAN 
REVOLUTION 1 

The commencement of the war of the American 
Revolution — a work worthy of commemoration for 
ages — cannot be satisfactorily accounted for without 
taking into view previous effort. Nothing is clearer 
than that it obeyed the great law of production. It 
was the result of labor. It took, years of deliberation 
by the people to arrive at the point of forcible re- 
sistance; and after this point had been reached, 
there were months of steady preparation to meet 
such a crisis worthily. The coming of the crisis, 
therefore, was not unexpected, nor was it left to 
stand by itself when it came. The leading patriots 
were neither rash nor dull, and had both purpose 
and preparation to seize upon the opportunity and 
the means it afforded to secure for the country that 
independence which is proper to a people of intelli- 
gent minds and superior regard for moral principles. 

1 The basis of a large part of this chapter is the text of Frothingham, in his 
excellent History of the Siege of Boston; but it was found unadapted to the 
purposes of this volume without considerable modificatioo. 

74 



BEGINNING OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 75 

They were men of sound common-sense, who well 
discerned the signs of the times. If they trusted 
to the inherent goodness of their cause, they also 
took' care to keep their powder dry. 

Many individual volunteers, it is true, appeared on 
the field on this first day of Revolutionary battles ; 
but the power that was thus successful against a 
body of British veterans of undoubted bravery, finely 
officered, disciplined, and equipped, — that twice put 
them in imminent peril of entire capture, — was not 
an armed mob, made up of dissociated individuals, 
who, on a new-born impulse, aroused by the shout 
of alarm, or the far-off peal of a bell, seized their 
rusty flint-lock guns and rushed to the battle. No, 
— it was an organized power, made up of men who 
had associated themselves, often by written agree- 
ments, to meet such an emergency as this ; who 
had been disciplined to meet it, were expected to 
meet it, and who had been warned that it was close 
at hand. They were the minute-men ! It is enough 
to say that they came so nearly up to their own 
ideal in the performance of a hazardous duty, and 
to the high expectations of their fellow-patriots, as 
to win praise from friend and foe. They did a 
thorough, a necessary, and an immortal work, and 
they should have the credit of that work. The ar- 



'J^ THE STORY OF PATRIOTS' DAY 

duous conflict of the 19th of April, 1775, should be 
called the Battle of the Mimite-Mefi. 

The effect of the news of the commencement of 
hostilities, both in the colonies and in Great Britain, 
was very marked. 

In the colonies the intelligence spread with won- 
derful rapidity. In almost every community in New 
England, on its reception, the minute-men rushed to 
arms. Hundreds of the muster-rolls, thousands of 
individual accounts of the soldiers of the Revolution, 
date from "The Lexington Alarm." Throughout the 
English colonies in America the- same spirit prevailed. 
Nothing could exceed the shock which it gave to the 
public mind. In every quarter the people assembled, 
and prepared to join their brethren of Massachusetts 
in defence of their liberties.^ 

The Provincial Congress adopted an address " To 
the Inhabitants of Great Britain;" and this was sent, 
together with a letter, to the colonial agent in Lon- 
don, by Hon. Richard Derby of Salem, arriving in 



1 It was the battle of Lexington which ericited, in North Carolina, the Meck- 
lenburg Declaration of Independence, which is alluded to in the journals of tliat 
day, and has been reprinted and commented upon at intervals ever since. The 
point of actual forcible resistance had been reached in Massachusetts nine months 
previous. Massachusetts may go even farther back, to the bold Abington re- 
solves of 1770, which declared acts of Parliament "a mere nulUty," — producing 
a great effect in the colonies. They were a virtual declaration of independence. 
It is said that some other towns were equally bold. 



GINNING OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 7/ 

that city on the 29th of May. This address, after 
brief accounts of the battle of the 19th of April, and 
of the outrages of the troops, states, that "these marks 
of ministerial vengeance have not yet detached us 
from our royal sovereign ; " that the colonies were 
still ready to "defend his person, family, crown, and 
dignity;" that they would not tamely submit to the 
persecution and tyranny of this cruel ministry ; but 
appealing to Heaven for the justice of their cause, 
they were determined to die or be free;^ and, in 
closing, said, that in a constitutional connection with 
the mother country, they hoped soon to be altogether 
a free and happy people. 

1 In his address at Concord, on the occasion of the new holiday of the 
19th of April, Hon. Mellen Chamberlain related an-interview he held fifty-two 
years before with Capt. Levi Preston, one of the militia-men who participated 
in the conflict that opened the Revolution. Judge Chamberlain was then about 
twenty-one years of age, and began his questions to the veteran, he says, with the 
assurance of one fresh from the school histories. " ' Captain Preston, what made 
you go to the Concord fight ? ' was the young man's opening question. The 
old man, bowed with the weight of fourscore years and ten, raised himself up- 
right, and turning to me, said : ' What did I go for ? ' — ' Yes,' I replied. ' My 
histories all tell me you men of the Revolution took up arms against "intoler- 
able oppression." What was it ? ' — ' Oppression ? I didn't feel any that I know 
of.' — ' Were you not oppressed by the Stamp Act ? ' — * I never saw any stamps, 
and I always understood that none were ever sold.' — 'Well, what about the 
tea-tax ?' — ' Tea-tax ? I never drank a drop of the stuff : the boys threw it all 
overboard.' — ' But I suppose you had been reading Harrington, Sidney, and 
Locke about the eternal principles of liberty.' — * I never heard of those men. 
The only books we had were the Bible, the Catechism, Watts's Psabns and 
hymns, and the Almaiiack.^ — ' Well, then, what was the matter, and what did 
you mean in going to the fight i" — * Young man, what we meant in fighting the 
British was this : We always had been free, and we meant to be free always.' " 



78 THE STORY OF PATRIOTS* DAY 

The address was printed and circulated, giving the 
first intelligence of the battle of Lexington and Con 
cord to the British public. The news was astounding. 
The government had information of the state of things 
in America that was accurate, but refused to give it 
credit. Speeches were made in Parliament, portraying 
the consequences of political measures with a foresight 
and precision that to-day appear wonderful, but the 
ministry heard them with indifference. It preferred to 
rely on representations of the colonies made by its ad- 
herents there, who were blinded by passion, or swayed 
by interest ; or on language in Parliament dictated by 
ignorance or pride, which described the great patriot 
army as a mere faction, and the colonists as cowards, 
and five thousand regulars as invincible. Hence, they 
looked to see their imposing military and naval prepa- 
rations strike fear into *'a rude rabble," and produce 
submission. Such ignorance and expectation were 
shared in by the British nation. How great, then, was 
the astonishment to hear that a collection of country 
people, hastily assembled, had compelled the veterans 
of England to retreat to their stronghold ! The news 
agitated London to its centre. It engrossed the atten- 
tion of all classes. It seemed not merely improbable, 
but incredible. 



STORIES 



I 



NINETEENTH OF APRIL, 1775 



A MINUTE-MAN'S STORY OF THE CONCORD FIGHTS 

" The causes which led to hostilities between Great 
Britan & America are well known to all those ac- 
quainted with history. In Oct., 1774, Gen. Gage, 
having previously ordered the General Court to meet 
at Salem, & had dissolved or prorogued the court, 
the greater part of the members met at Salem not- 
withstanding, and formed themselves into a Provincial 
Congress and choce Doct. Warren President, and ad- 
journed to Concord, & chose Mr. Hancock, President 
— they secretely agreed to make preparations to op- 
pose the acts of Parliament, until we should have re- 
dress of the grievances we complained of (at that time 

1 This story is from the original manuscript of Thaddeus Blood of Concord, de- 
scribing the ever memorable Concord fight with the British regulars on April 19, 
1 775, in which he was an active participant. He began as a minute-man, and 
worked up through the ranks until, in 1779, he became a " Lieut, in Capt. Moses 
Barnes Company in Lieut.-Col. Perce' Regt., stationed part of the time in R. I. 
and part in Swansey," as stated in his own quaint phraseology. His account, 
says the Bostoti Jotir?ial (which has investigated the authenticity of this docu- 
ment), is of great value, as he was for many years thereafter a schoolmaster, and 
so learned to be extremely careful. Therefore, in points where his relation differs 
from the commonly accepted account of the day, it should not be cast aside as 
useless. The manuscript was obtained from the estate of Mr, Blood's children by 
Colonel William Barrett, of Concord. 

81 



82 THE STORY OF PATRIOTS' DAY 

and near a year after there was nothing said about In- 
dependance) — the Congress recommended the forming 
of companies of minute men, and the collecting of 
stores & camp equipage ; a quantity of stores and 
cannon, etc., were collected & deposited in Concord, 
under the superintendence of Col. James Barrett, who 
had been a member of the General Court for many 
years, & then a respectable member of the Provincial 
Congress, and as great a patriot as was then, or per- 
haps ever, in Concord. He was requested by the Con- 
gress to encourage the forming of the companies, to 
guard the stores and to superintend the movements of 
the malisha, if called to action, and I heard him several 
times charge the companies not to fire first as we were 
marching to the Bridge. By his influence an armory 
for the manufacture of firearms and manufacture of 
saltpetre was set up in Concord, and it is my candid 
opinion that his name should be honorably handed 
down to posterity. In Feb., 1775, the British at- 
tempted to take the cannon at Salem, but were disap- 
pointed. From that time there was a guard kept at 
Concord over the cannon & stores till five or six weeks 
after Concord fight — here it should be observed that 
we were all then British subjects, that the officers were 
nominally appointed over the companies of the Minute- 



A MINUTE-MAN*S STORY OF THE CONCORD FIGHT 83 

men, that there was no commission nor any authority 
to commission until after Concord fight — except the 
malitia officers that were previously appointed by the 
King — that all the servises performed were volun- 
tary, both of officers & men. On the 19th of April, 
1775, about 2 o'clock in the morning, I was called out 
of Bed by John Barritt, a Sergt of the malitia compy 
to which I belonged (I was 20 years of age the 28th of 
May next following). I joined the company under 
Capt. Nathan Barrett (afterward Col.) at the old Court 
House, about 3 o'clock, and was ordered to go into the 
Court House to draw amunition. After the company 
had all drawn their amunition we were paraded near 
the meeting house, & I should suppose that there was 
60 or 70 men in Capt. Barrett's company, for the com- 
pany commonly consisted of 100 or over, & I think 
that about 30 join'd the minute companies or were sent 
to guard the cannon that was carried into the woods, 
&c., & that the whole of the malitia and minute-men of 
the town of Concord under arms that day was not less 
than 200, notwithstanding a Rev brother thinks there 
were but few of Concord about. About 4 o'clock the 
several company s of Concord were joined by two com- 
panies from Lincoln, the malitia commanded by Capt. 
Perce (afterward Col.), & the minute com'y by Capt. 



84 THE STORY OF PATRIOTS' DAY 

Wm. Smith — the vcn'l and hon'l Saml Hoar of Lin- 
coln was one of his Lieuts — & were then formed, the 
minute on the right, & Capt. Barrett's on the left & 
marched in order to the end of Meriam's Hill, then so 
called, and saw the British troops a coming down 
Brook's Hill; the sun was arising and shined on their 
arms & ttiey made a noble appearance in their red 
coats and glising arms — we retreated in order over 
the top of the hill to the liberty pole erected on the 
heighth opposite the meeting house & made a halt ; the 
main Body of the British marched up in the road & 
a detachment followed us over the hill & halted in half 
gun shot of us, at the pole ; we then marched over the 
Burying ground to the road, and then over the Bridge 
to Hunt's Hill, or Punkataisett, so called at that time, 
& were followed by two companies of the British over 
the Bridge, one company went up to destroy some 
stores at Col. James Barrett's before mentioned, and 
they tarried near the Bridge, some of them went to 
Capt, David Brown's, some Mr. Ephraim Buttrick's, 
where Col. Jonas Buttrick now lives. About 9 o'clock 
we saw a smoke rise at the Court House; it was pro- 
posed to march into town, and were joined by Westford 
and Acton companies, & were drawn up west of where 
Col. Jonas Buttrick now lives. Col. James Barrett, 







If- 






A minute-man's story of the concord fight 2>7 

afore mentioned, rode along the line, & having con- 
sulted with the officers, &, as was observed, shouted 
not to fire first, they began their march. Robinson & 
Buttrick led — I say Robinson & Buttrick, for I do not 
know what offices they held, but this certain, they had 
no commissions till after that time, after Robinson was 
appointed Lieut. Col. & Buttrick Major. Upon our 
begin'g to march the company of British formed first on 
the cosway in platoons, they then retreated over the 
Bridge & in retreating took up 3 planks and formed 
part in the road & part on each side, our men the same 
time marching in very good order, along the road in 
double file. At that time an officer rode up and a gun 
was fired. I saw where the Ball threw up the water 
about the middle of the river, then a second and a 
third shot, and the cry of fire, fire, was made from front 
to rear. The fire was almost simultaneous with the 
cry, and I think it was not more than two minutes, if 
so much, till the British run & the fire ceased — part 
of our men went over the Bridge & myself among the 
rest, & part returned to the ground they had left — 
after the fire every one appeared to be his own comman- 
der ; it was tho't best to go the east part of the Town 
& take them as they came back. Each took his own 
station, for myself I took my stand south of where Dr. 



88 THE STORY OF PATRIOTS DAY 

Minot then lived, and saw the British come from Con- 
cord, their right flank in the meadows, their left on the 
hill. When near the foot of the hill. Col. Thomeson of 
Billerica came up with 3 or 4 hundred men and there 
was a heavy fire, but the distance so great that little 
injury was done on either side, at least I saw but one 
killed, a number of wounded. I know it has been said 
that Gen. Bridge commanded the regiment from Chelms- 
ford & Bilerica. He might be some officer in the regi- 
ment, but it can be proved that Col. Tomson went with 
the regi't to Cambridge and stood till the troops were 
organized, and, being old, Bridge was made Colonel. 

Thad Blood, sergant. 



STORIES 

TOLD BY MEN AND WOMEN, LIVING IN APRIL, 

1894, WHO HAD THEM FROM THE LIPS 

OF THE HEROES OF THE IQTH OF 

APRIL, 1775 ^ 

The only living son of a man who stood in the 
Concord fight is Luke Smith of Acton. He was 
the youngest of thirteen children, and thus tells the 
father's story : — 

" Sitting upon my father's knee in the full enjoy- 
ment of the blessings of liberty, I received from him 
this account of the eventful day of history: — 

*' *The 19th of April, the day of the great battle, was 
a bright, crisp morning. The sun had been up a full 
hour and a half. We were drawn up in line when I 
heard the word of command for which we were anx- 
iously waiting. " March ! " How those words still 
ring in my ears ! Luke Blanchard was our fifer, and 
Francis Barker was the drummer. To the tune of the 

1 These narrations were originally contributed to the Boston Globe by 
A. E. Brown, Esq., author of the " History of Bedford," " Legends of Old 
Bedford," etc. 

89 



90 THE STORY OF PATRIOTS DAY 

" White Cockade " we left the town for — we knew not 
what end. We were too much in haste for many part- 
ing words. A few did run back to say a word to wife 
or parent. 

" * We took the road for a while, and then left it and 
struck through the woods, a shorter cut to Concord. 
We passed Barrett's mill before coming to old North 
Bridge. How indignant we were when we first caught 
sight of Captain Parsons's detachment of British troops, 
with axes, breaking up the gun-carriages, and bringing 
out hay and wood, and setting fire to them in the yard. 

" * We had a good mind to fire upon the redcoated 
soldiers of King George there and then, but we trusted 
our captain and waited for his orders. When [at the 
hill and bridge] I heard him say to Colonel Barrett, 
" I have not a man who is afraid to go," my heart beat 
faster than the drum of our company ; but how my feel- 
ings changed when I saw Isaac Davis fall, and Abner 
Hosmer by his side ! I then thought of the widow at 
home, whom a few hours before I had seen Isaac so 
tenderly leave, after giving her advice as to the care of 
the children in case of his death. 

" ' But we soon rallied and fought the harder until 
the British troops started on the retreat. I got a 
glimpse of Colonel Smith and Major Pitcairn as they 



STORIES TOLD BY MEN AND WOMEN 9I 

Stood with spyglasses in hand overlooking the scer^ 
from the old graveyard on the hill. 

" ' Although we had the great satisfaction of driving 
off the redcoats, we went sorrowfully back to our 
homes ; for two whom we had loved had perished, and 
we had the dead bodies as our charge.' " 

Mr. Samuel Hartwell of Lincoln, chairman of the 
selectmen of that town, yet tills the acres which his 
ancestors cultivated in their small way when they were 
subjects of King George III. 

Mr. Hartwell says : " It was my good fortune to have 
a grandmother live in the full possession of her fac- 
ulties until she attained almost a century of life. 

'' She said, ' Your grandfather left the house with 
the neighbors as soon as the alarm came by the way 
of Bedford. They had some agreement as to how the 
alarm should be spread in case of a movement of the 
British out this way, and the alarm was sounded here 
very early in the morning. 

'' * I did up the chores of the barn, and cared for the 
children as well as I could in my anxiety. When going 
out to one of the neighboring houses, I looked down 
the road, and saw such a sight as I can never forget. 
The army of the king was coming up in fine order. 



92 THE STORY OF PATRIOTS' DAY 

Their red coats were brilliant, and their bayonets glis- 
tening in the sun made a fine appearance ; but I knew 
what all that meant, and I felt that I should never 
see your grandfather again. They passed up the road 
without molesting me or any of us who were left in 
our houses. 

" * I saw an occasional horseman dashing by, going 
up and down, but heard nothing more until I saw them 
coming back in the afternoon all in confusion, wild 
with rage, and loud with threats. I knew there had 
been trouble, and that it had not resulted favorably for 
that retreating army. I heard the musket-shots just 
below by the old Brooks's Tavern, and trembled, be- 
lieving that our folks were killed. 

*' * Some of the rough, angry redcoats rushed up to 
this house and fired in, but, fortunately for me and 
the children, the shots went into the garret, and we 
were safe. How glad I was when they all got by the 
house, and your grandfather and our folks got home 
alive ! 

" ' I could not sleep that night, for I knew there 
were many of the British soldiers lying dead down by 
the roadside ; but the next morning we were somewhat 
quieted, and the neighbors hitched up the oxQn to the 
cart and went down and gathered up the dead. I had 



STORIES TOLD BY MEN AND WOMEN 93 

got over my ill feelings for the soldiers ; and, thinking 
of the wives, parents, and children away across the 
ocean, who would never again see their loved ones, 
I went out, and, leading my little children (your father 
one of them), I followed the rude hearse to the grave, 
hastily made in the burial-yard. I remember how 
cruel it seemed to put them into one large hole with- 
out any coffins. There was one in a fine uniform, and 
I suppose he was an officer. His hair was tied up in 
a cue. 

Mrs. Herbert Wyman of North Wobum, now of 
about fourscore years, had a double share of the nar- 
rations of that April day's experiences. She has 
nestled in the arms of two grandfathers who fought 
by the rude bridge, and she can tell what many love 
to hear. 

" My grandfather, Nathaniel Page of Bedford," she 
said, ** was the flag-bearer of the minute-men of that 
town. 

" He used to say : * I had been drilling with the 
other folks, and we expected something would come, 
but I was surprised when I was aroused at the dead 
of night by some one pounding on the house, and cry- 
ing, *' Up ! up ! the regulars are coming ! " 



94 THE STORY OF PATRIOTS DAY 

" ' I got up in a hurry, left your grandmother and the 
baby, just born, took the old flag that my father had 
carried years before,^ and started for Fitch's Tavern, 
where we gathered according to previous plans. Cap- 
tain Wilson, who lived down here, was there early ; 
and Thompson Maxwell, his brother-in-law, was with 
him, although he then lived up in New Hampshire ; 
but he was brave, and would go. When we got to- 
gether we went in, had some toddy and a lunch of 
rye bread and cheese, and started. Captain Wilson 
flourished his old sword, and said, " This is a cold 
breakfast, but we'll give the redcoats a hot dinner ; 
we'll have every dog of them before night." 

<' < We got there ahead of the militia company ; but 
all were in time to help remove the stores to safe 
places, as we thought. My flag was a bother to me, 
and I laid it down — not just the thing to do, but 
we were in a hurry. After getting the stores hid, I 
came for my flag, and found the boys had it, and were 
parading about. 

** ' We were in the fight at the bridge when the 
Acton men fell, but v/e all escaped ; yet did not fare 
as well when we got across the " Great Fields." 

• 1 In the French and Indian Wars. See " Flags of the Revolution," in the 
following article. 



STORIES TOLD BY MEN AND WOMEN 95 

" ' We had a hot time, and near Brooks's Tavern came 
the worst of all. Captain Wilson fell dead, and Job 
Lane was wounded. We . . . were soon after them 
to Cambridge, and it proved a great day for the 
colony.' " 

Dr. Thomas B. Hosmer of Bedford repeats the story 
of Lexington as he had it from his grandfather, John 
Hosmer, who was with Captain Parker's company 
of volunteers that morning. Dr. Hosmer, when a boy, 
went with his grandfather to the field of Lexington, 
before it was made a park, and had pointed out to him 
the exact line of the company, and many of the im- 
portant places to history generally unknown. 

His grandfather said: "I stood here when I heard 
Captain Parker say, 'Stand your ground! Don't fire 
unless fired upon. But if they mean to have a war, 
let it begin here.' I saw the British when they 
marched up in fine order, and heard the command 
of Major Pitcairn : 'Disperse, ye rebels! lay down 
your arms and disperse I ' 

*' We were glad when we saw them start on and leave 
us, but how sad, when we saw so many of our men 
lay dead, and others wounded, on this field where we 
are now standing." 



96 THE STORY OF PATRIOTS' DAY 

Mr. Elijah W. Stearns of Bedford repeats thus 
his grandfather's story : '' I was not in any official 
capacity when I left home ; but after the fight at the 
old North Bridge, and when pursuing the retreating 
enemy, my brother-in-law. Captain Jonathan Wilson, 
was killed, and I took command of the company 
through the day. We followed on to Cambridge, but 
I did not stay in camp long. Leaving my son Solo- 
mon there, I came home to care for my family. My 
son remained in camp until he sickened, and he died 
in the May following." 

Mrs. Alfred Mudge of Boston was seen at the Hotel 
Copley, where she recalled the story reproduced here 
as told to her by her grandmother, Alice Stearns 
Abbott, later Mrs. Stephen Lane : — 

" I was eleven years of age, and my sisters Rachel 
and Susannah were older. We all heard the alarm, 
and were up and ready to help fit out father and 
brother, who made an early start for Concord. We 
were set to work making cartridges and assisting 
mother in cooking for the army. We sent off a large 
quantity of food for the soldiers, who had left home 
so early that they had but little breakfast. We were 
frightened by hearing the noise of guns at Concord ; 



STORIES TOLD BY MEN AND WOMEN Q/ 

our home was near the river, and the sound was con- 
ducted by the water. 

'' I suppose it was a dreadful day in our home, and 
sad indeed ; for our brother, so dearly loved, never came 
home." 

Edward Reed of Burlington lives in the house which 
his father, James, and grandfather, James, owned 
and occupied. 

"In this room," said Mr. Reed, "the prisoners 
captured at Lexington were held in custody. 

" My grandfather said : * I was making ready to 
go over to Lexington when I saw some of the minute- 
men coming with a squad of the redcoats. They 
brought them here to my house, and gave them up 
to me, informing me of the affairs at Lexington. I 
could not then go on in the pursuit, as I was given 
the custody of these prisoners. 

" * I did my duty faithfully, treated them well, as 
they would say to-day if they could come around ; but I 
guess they would not want to run the gantlet of the 
Yankee again. I had them here in this room (now the 
same as one hundred and nineteen years ago). They 
behaved well, and I guess they thought they were lucky 
to get out of it that way. Fearing their return from 



98 THE STORY OF PATRIOTS* DAY 

Concord, my redcoated visitors were taken off to 
Chelmsford, and I was not sorry to be rid of them.' ** 

Samuel Sewall, a descendant of Chief Justice Sewall 
of Massachusetts, who, with his father, has served the 
town of Burlington as clerk a full half-century, tells 
this story of April 19, as he had it from the illustri- 
ous Dorothy Quincy (niece of the ** Dorothy Q." of 
Dr. Holmes's poem), who had become the wife of John 
Hancock. 

Mr. Sewall, then a youth, in company with his 
father, visited this noted lady, a family connection, 
at her home, the old Hancock rriansion on Beacon Hill ; 
and there her story, given below, came to him, which 
he has always cherished as a precious memorial of 
the Dorothy O. of history : — 

*' I was a guest with others on the night of April 18, 
at the Lexington parsonage, being particularly in- 
terested in John Hancock, a relative of Mrs. Clark. 
Samuel Adams was also with us, a guest. I was not 
a little anxious, for I was aware of the hatred that 
existed among the leaders of the regulars for both 
Mr. Adams and Mr. Hancock. 

'' I was easily awakened when the warning mes- 
senger came to the house. I made a hasty toilet, 



STORIES TOLD BY MEN AND WOMEN 99 

and was soon ready for the discretion of the officers. 
After much reluctance it was decided that we go 
over to the parsonage in Woburn precinct, where 
were trusted friends of the Lexington minister. We 
were driven there in a coach and four, and found a 
welcome, — Madame Jones, the widow of the deceased 
minister, being the hostess. She was aided by her 
daughter and the young minister. Rev. Mr. Marrett, 
who later married the daughter of the family. 

" Preparations were soon begun for a meal, and no 
pains were spared. A fine salmon, given to Mr. Han- 
cock in the morning at Lexington, was sent over to 
our stopping-place, and it was prepared for the table. 
We were all sitting down to the tempting feast, when 
a messenger from Lexington rushed in and told the 
story of the carnage there, and that we were hotly 
pursued. The coach, a telltale indeed, stood in the 
yard. This was secreted by Cuff, the negro slave in 
the family ; and the male guests were conducted away 
through the woods to the home of Amos Wyman in an 
obscure corner of Bedford, Burlington, and Billerica. 

*' There they were forced from the cravings of na- 
ture to call for food, which the lady of the house gave 
them, such as she had, — cold boiled salt pork, brown 
bread, and potatoes, — strange diet for these patriots, 



100 THE STORY OF PATRIOTS DAY 

who were in the habit of having the best. But this 
was the best the house afforded ; and the hospitality 
was in after years rewarded by Mr. Hancock, who 
gave a cow to the daughter who became Mrs. Sey- 
mour." 

Mr. Sewall, who recalls Madam Hancock's story, 
said : — 

*' We have the very table in the house around which 
those noted guests were gathered ; and it will be spread 
on the one hundred and nineteenth anniversary of the 
battle of Lexington and Concord in somewhat the 
same manner that it was for Hancock, Adams, and 
Dorothy Q." 

Mrs. Pamela Fisk of Arlington is ninety-four years 
of age, and her stories seem like a new chapter in 
the history of April 19, 1775. 

Mrs. Fisk is a granddaughter of Francis Brown 
and of Edmund Munroe, both of Lexington, where 
she was born and spent her early life. Her paternal 
grandmother was Mary Buckman, who lived at the 
old Buckman Tavern. So, on all sides, she inherits 
the blood of true patriots, and has heard the story 
from their own lips. 

"Grandfather Brown/' she says, "told me this story : 



STORIES TOLD BY MEN AND WOMEN Id 

*I was out here near the meeting-house at the early 
hour of two o'clock, and answered the roll-call of our 
company, and in response to the order of Captain 
Parker, loaded my gun with powder and ball. I 
heard the discussion as to the safety of Hancock 
and Adams, then sleeping over at the home of Par- 
son Clark. I went back home and waited until 
half-past four o'clock, when I heard the alarm guns 
and the drum beat to arms, and I was again on the 
Green. 

***The order not to fire unless fired upon deterred 
me and all of us from having a shot as the British 
soldiers came up. I participated in the early action, 
and, having cared for our dead and wounded neigh- 
bors, I was in the afternoon attack ; when I was 
wounded by a ball which entered my cheek, passed 
under my ear, and lodged in the back of my neck, 
where it remained nearly a year.' " Mrs. Fisk said : 
"I used to put my finger on these scars, as he told 
me just how the ball went. We needed no fairy 
tales in our youth ; the real experiences of our own 
people were more fascinating than all the novels 
ever written." 

Mrs. Sophronia Russell of Arlington, now eighty- 



102 THE STORY OF PATRIOTS DAY 

seven years of age, in the full possession of all her 
faculties, says : — 

"Some of the delights of my life were the visits 
to my uncle, Jonathan Harrington, at Lexington. He 
was the last survivor of the battle of Lexington, liv- 
ing until 1854. By the open fire he and Aunt Sally 
would sit and tell the story over and over again ; 
for, as the sentiment in the country increased, he 
was sought out by men from all lands, and became a 
hero indeed. If Goldsmith had had my uncle in 
mind he could not have more truly pictured him than 
he did when writing — 

* The broken soldier, kindly bade to stay. 
Sat by his fire, and talkM the night away, 
Wept o'er his wounds, or, tales of sorrow done, 
Shouldered his crutch, and show'd how fields were won.' 

" My husband's grandfather told me that he returned 
from the fight to his store, and found that the British 
soldiers had not only drunk up his rum, but pulled out 
the taps and let his molasses run all over the floor. 
Grandmother Russell showed me the route she took 
when fleeing from the enemy with her babe in her 
arms. 

" She said : ' When we first saw the army coming 
up the road we were engaged in melting up our pew- 



STORIES TOLD BY MEN AND WOMEN IO3 

ter dippers and running bullets. So as not to be 
molested we put out our candle, and were passed 
by unnoticed by the army, which went up all in good 
regular order ; but such confusion I never saw as they 
were in when on the retreat. My father escorted 
me down to Spring Valley (now near the residence 
of J. T. Trowbridge), and there showed me where 
the horses of the British, killed in the road, were put, 
and their bones left to bleach in the sun.' 

*'The story of the opening of the Revolution has 
always been a reality in our family. One of the mem- 
bers, Jason Russell, was an invalid and non-combatant, 
and was barbarously butchered here in his own house 
when the British were on the retreat. He would not 
flee, saying, *An Englishman's house is his castle.' 
He was shot with two bullets, and eleven bayonet 
stabs were found in his body." A Bible that be- 
longed to his widow is treasured in this family. In 
it is written : — 

" Purchased with the money given her by some unknown friend 
in England, in consideration of the loss of her beloved husband, 
on the 19th of April, 1775, who was inhumanly murdered by the 
British troops under the command of Gen. Thomas Gage, to the 
eternal infamy of the British nation." 

The Russell family are glad the day is to be known 

in the future as Patriots' Day. 



THE FLAGS OF THE REVOLUTION 



The banner here illustrated was carried by Cor- 
net Nathaniel Page in the company of minute- 
men from Bedford. It is 
now the property of the 
town of Bedford. A re- 
port on this flag, made to 
the. Massachusetts Histor- 
ical Society in January, 
1886, was as follows: ** It 
was originally designed in 
England, in 1660-70, for 
the three-county troops in 
Massachusetts, and became one of the accepted 
standards of the organized militia of this State, 
and as such it was used by the Bedford com- 
pany." The "three-county troops" consisted of 
the Colony regiments organized in 1643 ; of which 
Middlesex had one, Suffolk one, and Essex and Nor- 
folk together one. This flag^ is, without doubt, the 




1 For the account of the bearing of this flag at Concord, see page 94. 
104 



THE FLAGS OF THE REVOLUTION I05 

banner carried by the Middlesex regiment from that 
date, and was the standard of the patriots at the 
initial conflict of the Revolution. It is, therefore, 
one of the most valuable relics of the Common- 
wealth.^ 

1 The flag borne at the Battle of Bunker Hill had a blue field with a white 
union, in which was a red cross ; and in the upper staff corner a green pine-tree. 
It has been stated that a flag having a red field, with the same figures, was also 
carried on that day. The corps led by Dr. Warren, in this battle, carried a Con- 
necticut regimental flag, — one of those described below. 

In the spring of 1776, Massachusetts adopted for service on the cruisers fitted 
out in her ports, a standard of very nearly the design suggested by General 
Washington, — a white flag with a green pine-tree central, and above it the 
words, " An Appeal to Heaven." Modifications of this design — with or without 
a motto — had a red or a blue field, with a white union, and in the latter a green 
pine-tree. 

The Connecticut troops, in 1775, carried banners of a solid color, — a dif- 
ferent color for each regiment, — yellow, blue, scarlet, crimson, white, azure, and 
orange. They bore, on one side, a vine and the motto " qui transtulit susiinet,^* 
and (later) on the other side the words, " An Appeal to Heaven." 

The pine-tree flag divided its popularity in the country with the rattlesnake 
flag, which also varied in color of field and position of figure. 

The earliest standard displayed in the South that was distinctively American, 
yet not national, was designed by Colonel Moultrie, and raised at Charleston, 
S.C., in the fall of 1775. It was a large blue flag with a white crescent in the 
upper corner near the staff. He subsequently added the word " Liberty " in large 
white letters. 

During the siege of Boston a committee (one of whom was Dr. Franklin) 
was appointed by the Continental Congress to prepare a national standard. The 
committee visited General Washington at Cambridge, Mass., and conferred with 
him on the subject ; and he, together with the committee, requested a professor 
of the college in that town and the wife of their host to prepare a design for a 
national flag. The design adopted was formed of thirteen red and white stripes, 



I06 THE STORY OF PAIKIOTS' DAY 

placed in alternation, with the " Union Jack" in the upper staff corner, for a 
union. On Prospect Hill, Somerville (adjoining the Charlestown District of 
Boston), is a stone erected by a historical society of the city, — a part of the 
inscription reading as follows : " On this hill the Union Flag, with its thirteen 
stripes, the emblem of the United Colonies, first bade defiance to an enemy 
January i, 1776." A flag of full size of this design was raised on a hill in 
Cambridge on January 2, 1776, by the hands of General Washington himself. 

This design, without doubt, was the one used in the flags made under the 
direction of Dr. Franklin by Mrs. Betsy Ross of Philadelphia in the following 
spring. General Washington visited Philadelphia in June, '76-7, and was re- 
quested by Congress, together with Hon. Robert Morris and Colonel George 
Ross, to prepare a national standard. Accordingly they carried to Mrs. Ross 
a rude design of a flag with thirteen stripes, alternately red and white, the union 
having thirteen stars in a blue field. There can be little doubt that it was one 
of the flags made by her from these designs which was displayed in the Hall of 
Independence, and another flung to the breeze from the cupola of the building, 
at the close of the prayer offered by the chaplain of Congress immediately after 
the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. 

Congress took no further action in this matter until June 14, 1777, when it 
adopted a resolve " That the flag of the thirteen United States be thirteen 
stripes alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a 
blue field, representing a new constellation." 

This flag — with additional stars, as subsequently provided by Congress — 
has ever since been the standard of the United States of America, 



POEMS 

Brought out by the first celebration 

OF 

PATRIOTS' DAY 



APRIL 19, 1775 1 
[By Rev. S. F. Smith, D, Z>.] 

Praise to the brave and true, 
Men prompt to dare and do, 

To do or die. 
Blazoned on history's page. 
Men for their stormy age. 
Fearless the fight to wage, 
Scorning to fly. 

They with prophetic eye 
Saw through the lurid sky 

The goal they sought, 
A nation of the free, 
A land of liberty. 
Stretching from sea to sea, — 

O glorious thought ! 



1 Written by Dr. Smith, author of the hymn " America," for the celebration 
of the One Hundred and Nineteenth Anniversary of the Battles of Lexington 
and Concord by the International Order of the King's Daughters and Sons, and 
read by him at their entertainment in the People's Church, Boston, on the afte^ 
noon of April 19, 1894. 

109 



no THE STORY OF PATRIOTS DAY 

They hailed the coming State, 
Patient to toil and wait, 

Suffered and bled. 
Death strode o'er hill and plain, 
With hunger, cold, and pain ; 
Hope rose to sink again 

Till years had fled. 

Hail, patriots ! Whose brave hands 
Over these free, fair lands 

Their flag unfurled. 
Men, by all times admired, 
To noble deeds inspired, 
By whom the shot was fired 

" Heard round the world." 

O, sons of noble sires, 

Who, through affection's fires, 

To triumphs rode : 
Proud of the deeds they wrought, 
With countless blessings fraught. 
Cherish the land they bought — 

The gift of God. 






''^m 







I'-v^ 



<||K*^ 




THE DAWN OF LEXINGTON I 

[By Clarence H, Bell.'\ \ 

The sun s last gleam has died away, j 

And naught remains to tell of day, i 

Save that above yon distant hill j 

A golden tinge doth linger still, j 

From out the town doth softly come j 

The rhythmic rattle of the drum ; | 

And on the ships at anchor fast ■ j 

The flags are lowered from the mast. 

Along the margin of the shore j 

The twinkling lights shine out once more. \ 

Upon the piers and pebbly strand ' 
The keen-eyed sentries take their stand. 

The glistening river flows along, ' 

Its bubbling current, deep and strong ; 

Beyond the stream, a gentle rise. 

The hills outlined against the skies. ' \ 

Slow down the slope a horseman rides I 

To where the verdure meets the tides ; , 

113 ^ 



114 THE STORY OF PATRIOTS DAY 

Dismounting there upon the beach, 
He holds his steed in easy reach. 

The charger nibbles at the green, 
And all the tufts doth quickly glean, 
Then strains impatient at the rein 
More distant morsels to obtain. 

The master, with a fervent clasp, 
Retains the bridle in his grasp, 
And, standing there with eager eye. 
To pierce the gloom doth vainly try. 

Alone he stands upon the shore ; 
A nobler form ne'er manhood wore ; 
Erect and firm, with iron will. 
He keeps his lonely vigil still. 

Of wealth is he no favored son ; 
From dawn to dark his work was done : 
New England reared such men as he, 
To show the world a nation free. 

The watcher stands expectant there. 
Though dark the night and chill the air ; 
One point alone attracts his eye, 
'Tis where the steeple rises high. 



THE DAWN OF LEXINGTON Ilj 

Upon the breeze faint murmurs float ; 
The splashing oars of passing boat, 
The rumbling wheels, and now and then 
The measured tread of martial men. 

Commotion thickens in the air ; 
Some movement of the forces there ; 
The heavy hand on Boston pressed, — 
Will it reach out and crush the rest ? 

Amid the blackness of the night 
There shines a sudden flash of light ; 
A gleaming star, an eye of fire, 
The signal from the Old North spire. 

When Freedom's picket standing there 
Discerned the message in the air, 
He quickly reached his saddle seat, 
His patriot heart in angry beat. 

Across the mead at lightning speed 
With gory spur he urged his steed ; 
Then up the slope along the crest, 
The charger's fiery course was pressed. 

The rattling hoof-beats smite the air. 
As hour by hour the night doth wear ; 



Il6 THE STORY OF PATRIOTS' DAY 

By dusty lane, through wooded glen, 
He holds the pace, unseen by men. 

At last before a farmhouse door 
He reins his weary steed once more, 
Then plies the knocker fast and loud. 
His arm with frantic strength endowed. 

From window high a man looks out. 
Dull, drowsy eyes, in fear and doubt. 
With trembling hand he shades the light, 
" What means this tumult in the night ? " 

The eager horseman calls him down, 
" Come forth at once and rouse the town, 
Give up your sleep, forego your dream. 
The British troops have crossed the stream.' 

These fateful words no sooner said 
Than on to other homes he sped. 
From house to house the message flew. 
And far and wide the country through. 

In every home was bustle then, 



On every road were eager men ; J 

One common impulse seized them all, \ 

To face the foe, perhaps to fall. ! 




The Belfry on Lexington Green. 



THE DAWN OF LEXINGTON IIQ 

When daylight came there could be seen 

At Lexington, upon the green, 

A little band of heroes true, 

With hearts to dare and wills to do. 

A varied throng, in homespun clad, 
With toil-marked hands and faces sad ; 
The youth with down upon his chin. 
The sire with scanty locks and thin. 

Not long to wait ; the breaking day 
Reveals the British on their way. 
In solid front, at beat of drum. 
Behold the scarlet legions come. 

'Gainst such a host what can they do? 
To face the storm, alas, too few. 
One scattered volley dins the ear ; 
The farmer greets the grenadier. 

But all in vain their puny might : 
The seasoned soldiers, trained to fight, 
With gleaming steel and nitred lead 
Disperse the band, except the dead. 

Upon the grass the heroes lie ; 
But deeds like these can never die. 



I20 THE STORY OF PATRIOTS DAY 

The Yankee blood that stains the sod, 
Like martyred Abel's, cries to God. 

The troops pass on, — in peace no more ; 
On every side the sounds of war. 
Here, single shots ; there, volleys fly ; 
The victors yell, the victims cry. 

Each sturdy oak a marksman hides ; 
Behind the wall the foeman glides ; 
In vain the captains urge their men 
Against a surge they cannot stem. 

They halt, they pause, reverse for flight ; 
Might quails before the cause of right ; 
And, hasting back to whence they came, 
They leave the country all aflame. 

New England's blood at fever height ; 
The Yankee's fist in anger tight ; 
Oppression's might avails no more. 
Though drenched the land in yeoman gore. 

O monarch on Great Britain's throne. 
No more this land thy rule shall own ; 
The nursling now a giant grown. 
Hath burst his bonds and stands alone ! 



THE NINETEENTH OF APRIL. 

[By E. Way Allen.l 

A HUNDRED years ago and more, 
A woman stood in a farmhouse door, 
Straining her eyes to the distant hill. 
With a breaking heart, but lips held still, 
Then closed the door, and went to pray — 
New England women did, that day. 

In the hush of night the message came 
By a neighbor's boy, uncouth and plain ; 
Yet the unshod feet and freckled face 
Were clothed by the words with a noble grace 
"The British are coming ! Arm and meet 
At the village green by Concord Street ! " 

Then rolling outward through the gloom, 
The church-bell sent the call of doom. 
And ere the gray dawn reached the west. 
These farmer heroes stood the test, — 
Triumphant souls went up to God, 
And martyrs' life-blood stained the sod 



122 THE STORY OF PATRIOTS DAY 

Is this the end ? Can this be all ? 
Slain by a British musket-ball ? 
Shall all the fate of all the years, 
With all their hopes and all their fears 
And deathless rights, sink in the grave 
Of men who died those rights to save ? 

Look down the years : The green corn waves 
Over God's Acre, sown with graves. 
Though counting few, yet twice the band 
Whose dauntless valor won the land. 
These are the children, those the sires. 
And such blood acts as the need requires. 



The April day rose sweet and calm. 

The robin hymned a morning psalm ; ! 

The apple-blossoms, pink and fair, ! 

With springtime fragrance filled the air; | 

When sudden came a jarring thrill, j 

And the robin's leaping note was still. ] 

i 
A rumble and thud through the trembling ground, 
A rattle of firearms' horrid sound. 
Tumult and noise down the startled street, 
Gasping, moaning, — wild retreat, 



THE NINETEENTH OF APRIL 1 23 

Utter confusion, shameless rout, 
Panic-struck soldiers wearied out ! 

Look quickly ! look ! and look again ! 
The British regulars are but men, 
And ours are men of sterner stuff, 
By toil and hardship rendered tough ; 
Great thoughts have been their daily food. 
And great deeds now but suit t]ieir mood. 

Lexington heroes head the list, 

Lexington homes most men have missed : 

Never a child but came through pain, 

And the greater the sorrow the greater the gain. 

Remember, a nation was born that day ! 

Was the price, do you think, too great to pay ? 

*'Our lives and homes" was the pledge they said, 
" For the truth shall live when we are dead." 
Their lives they gave, their homes were burned, — 
By the weight of those ashes was destiny turned ; 
And that ours to-day is the first of lands 
Is the royal gift from their rustic hands. 



A STORY OF AN APRIL DAY.^ 

[By a Grand-daughter. '\ 

I've a little story of an April day, 
I would like to tell in a simple way : 

* *Twas one hundred and nineteen years ago — 
That was the time of the " Concord Fight ; " 

And my story is only a little side-show, 

A little story I happen to know. 
An incident of that morning bright. 

The British were coming — the British were here ; 

The minute-men rallied to meet the foe, 
With never a thought of shrinking or fear, 
And never a dream that fame was so near, 

As they sallied forth in the morning's glow. 

In the shade of the forest, not far away 

(I wish I could tell exactly where), 
Some women and children were gathered that day, 

1 This is a true incident of the Concord Fight. The " Joseph B." of the 
poem was Joseph Burrows, whose father, Lieutenant Wm. Burrows, served in the 
patriot army from April 19, 1775, to the end of the war. 

124 



A STORY OF AN APRIL DAY l2^ 

Shuddering to hear the sound of the fray 

Which was borne to their ears on the April air. 

Well, one of the boys, just eleven years old, 

Whose name and initial were Joseph B., 
With some other lads, who were equally bold. 
Forgetting the dangers of which they were told, 
Wandered away from the sheltering tree. 

From their mothers* retreat they wandered away, 

And wandered farther than they were aware 
(As boys will sometimes do in their play), 
Till they came at length near the old highway. 
While some British soldiers were resting there. 

These soldiers seemed friendly and very well bred, 

And gave to the boys a welcome glad. 
And one of the officers to Joseph said. 
As he patted him kindly on the head, 
" Where is your father, my little lad } '* 

<* He has gone to fight the regulars, sir ! " 
Promptly responded Joseph B. 
" Well, you won't fight them, I dare aver, 
You'll never fight them, will you, sir?" 
" Yes, when I'm big enough," said he. 



126 THE STORY OF PATRIOTS* DAY 

The officer smiled and winked to the rest, 
And the boys returned to their rendezvous. 

They looked on the matter as a very good jest ; 

But their frightened mothers were much distressed, 
When the lads had told them all they knew. 

The years rolled on, one, two, three, four ; 

Now was the time for Joseph B. 
Fifteen years was "big enough" sure, — 
So he shouldered his musket and went to the war ; 

And the years he served were one, two, three. 

He had served three years when victory came, 
And then he returned to his home once more, 

With only a soldier's modest fame. 

And simply his own untarnished name, 
Plain Joseph B., just as before. 

This is my story of that April day. 

When the brave-hearted minute-men rose in their 
might ; 
And Joseph's grandchildren are old and gray. 
But they hold in remembrance this tale of that day. 

This little side-show of the "Concord Fight." 



THE SONG OF THE NORTH CHURCH BELLS 

IBy Walter J. Phelan.'\ 

Oft when the Sabbath morning time 
With smile of calm the city greets, 

Echo the tones of a tender chime 
Over the maze of sordid streets, — 

A gray church tower's sweet-cadenced strain ; 

In hearts that know, what chords are stirred 
Tumultuous, when in soft refrain 

Those century-mellowed notes are heard ! 
To them from out that belfry high 
Its glorious story fills the sky. 

With slender spire against the blue 
Bright sky it stands in simple state ; 

Yet ne'er may tower the wide world through 
So sweetly sing a song so great. 

Above the city and the hills. 

The winding river and the sea. 
To varied human joys and ills 

It lends a voiceful sympathy — 
127 



128 THE STORY OF PATRIOTS* DAY 

Prayerful anthem, triumph-swell, 
Patriot paean, hero's knell. 

And yet whatever strain may be 
That carillon's, or wild or faint, 

One burden 'mid its melody 

Rolls ever from that belfry quaint. 

At least to boyish fancies deep 

That trancing tower did conscious seem. 

Whose voice the morning stirred to leap 
Ecstatic from its memoried dream, 

Till thus from thoughts impression'd long 

Suggestion caught the old tower's song : 

"In me was born fair Freedom's light," 
(So keen it starts in tingling pride) 

" My twin-star beam one April night 
Flashed fateful meaning o'er the tide. 

" It lit a patient watcher's eye. 

It nerved a good steed's quivermg frame. 
Told ready hearts the hour was nigh, — 

It leaped when tongues of angry flame 
The dream of hills and centuries woke 
What time that glorious morning broke. 



THE SONG OF THE NORTH CHURCH BELLS 1 29 

" It glittered where a strange low mound 
Fringed yonder hill with ominous hint, 
When 'mid the red coils tightning round 
The rifle-flash met bayonet-glint. 

" It glowed, when lo ! they found their chief, 
More bold investing watch-fires burned ; 

While trembling spires scarce knew relief, 
Till wide beneath me, seaward turned, 

A vast fleet streamed, and on our shore 

The red flag fluttered nevermore. 

" My spark along a continent 

Its warning sped to far renown, 

And lo ! the strife no longer meant 

An empire 'gainst a little town. 

" But wide the land its magic power 
To maddening conflagration stirred. 
Till rapturous from a distant tower 

Outrang th' irrevocable word ! 
In myriad hearts' high purpose set 
That holy flame is living yet." 

So proudly peals each silver tongue. 
Delirious-sweet their accents roll ; 



I50 THE STORY OF PATRIOTS DAY 

They thrill the walls whose thunders rung 
When Otis flash'd his stormy soul. 

They reach that doubly sacred fane 

Whose ampler breast swelled bold and free ; 

To Adams' tireless soul and brain 

They speak the waves that knew the tea, — 

And faint or clear, at the breeze's will, 

Float o'er the tide to that storied hill. 





SxATLii i.'F .Minltj: .Max, Cw.ncuku. 



THE MINUTE-MAN 

[By Isaac Bassett Choate."] 

Blithe speeds the plough this warm sweet day of 

spring, 
When April's sun has broken winter's reign, 
Unclasped the hold frost had on lake and plain ; 
Swift hurry swallows north on eager wing ; 
To plough boy's whistle thrush and bluebird sing. 
The brook runs glad, escaped from icy chain 
Which tyrant winter forged, but forged in vain ; 
All fields and woods with songs of freedom ring. 
Now halts the plough in furrow, ready hand 
Grasps ready musket in defence of right ; 
The ploughboy is a soldier at command, 
His country serving well ; before the night 
Shall sound of musketry assurance bring 
That now hath minute-man succeeded king. 

133 



THE BUFF AND THE BLUE 

[By £. Way Allen.^ 

Golden buff and a deep, deep blue — 
The hearts beneath were stanch and true, 
Men that a kingdom could not buy, 
Men that would dare and do and die ; 
These were the sort that led the fight 
In the struggle for freedom, God, and right. 

The deep, deep blue and the golden buff, — 

How can we render them honor enough ? 

We unfurled the blue in our flag on high, 

Where it matches its tint with the blue of the sky ; 

And we buried the buff beneath the sod, 

To rise, fresh-born, in the golden-rod. 

Golden buff and the deep, deep blue 
O'er us to-day their power renew ; 
And loyal Yankees everywhere, 
On head or shoulder or bosom, wear 
A knot of the buff and a knot of the blue, 
As the patriot wore them, stanch and true. 

134 



PAUL REVERE'S RIDE^ 
[By Rev. S. F. Smithy D. Z>.] 

Hang out the lanterns ! Let oppression quail, — 
The pen of History shall record the tale; 
A feeble taper flashing o'er the sea, 
But the first signal light of liberty. 

Hang out the lantern ! Veiled by friendly night, 
A watchful horseman waits to catch the light ; 
Then warn the sleeping people far and near. 
Who is the patriot rider ? Paul Revere. 

Ride on ! Ride on ! O valiant horseman ! Wake ! 
Fathers and sons, a stern defence to make. 
Armed with brave hands, and hearts resolved to be, 
Through Heaven's defence, a nation of the free. 

1 On the eve of April 19, 1894, there was a celebration at Christ Church 
(the Old North Church), Boston, of the restoration of its chimes, and of the 
signals from its tower for the messenger to warn Lexington and Concord of 
the approach of the British troops. At one point Dr. Smith attempted 
to leave the church, but was captured at the door by his friends, and brought 
back to the platform, while the people cheered. He was besought to make a 
speech, but confessed his inability bo to do. " But," said he, " I have something 
which I have written here ; " and suiting the action to the word, he drew a roll of 
manuscript from his pocket. From this he read the following original poem. 



136 

The foeman started bravely on his way, 
But found the freemen ready for the fray, 
Waiting their coming — men who knew no fear, 
Prepared for battle — roused by Paul Revere. 

High thoughts, strong souls, firm wills then showed 

their power ; 
Then independence struck the nation's hour. 
The patriots won the day, and Percy's men. 
Conquered and broken, sought their camps again. 

The feeble lantern in the belfry hung, 
With flickering rays over the still waters flung : 
A central sun, that never more declines. 
Still round the world a radiant signal shines. 

Strong men, great hearts, the stirring times required. 
With matchless zeal and fervent purpose fired ; 
But none more grandly served the cause so dear 
Than that brave patriot rider, Paul Revere. 



OUR COUNTRY! 

[By Julia Ward Howe.'] 

On primal rocks she wrote her name; 

The towns were reared on holy graves ; 
The golden seed that bore her came 

Swift-winged with prayer o'er ocean waves. 

The Forest bowed his solemn crest, 
And open flung his sylvan doors ; 

Fresh rivers led the appointed guests 
To clasp the wide-embracing shores% 

Till fold by fold, the broidered land, 
To swell her virgin vestments, grew ; 

While sages, strong in heart and hand, 
Her virtue's fiery girdle drew. 

O exile of the wrath of kings ! 

O pilgrim ark of liberty ! 
The refuge of divinest things. 

Their record must abide in thee. 

1 Read at the meeting of the Daughters of the Revolution at the Old South 
Meeting-house, April 19, 1894. 

137 



138 THE STORY OF PATRIOTS* DAY 

First in the glories of thy front 

Let the crown jewel, truth, be found ; 

Thy right hand fling with generous wont 
Love's happy chain to farthest bound. 

Let justice with the faultless scales 
Hold fast the worship of thy sons ; 

Thy commerce spread her shining sails 
Where no dark tide of rapine runs. 

So link thy ways to those of God, 
So follow firm the heavenly laws, 

That stars may greet the warrior-browed, 
And storm-sped angels hail thy cause. 

O land — the measure of our prayers, 
Hope of the world in grief and wrong — 

On thine the blessing of the year, 
The gift of faith, the crown of song. 




Old North Church. 



THE SCAR OF LEXINGTON ^ 
[Bjy Hannah F. Gould. '\ 

With cherub smile, the prattling boy 

Who on the veteran's breast reclines, 
Has thrown aside his favorite toy, 

And round his tender finger twines 
Those scattered locks, that with the flight 
Of fourscore years are snowy white ; 
And as a scar arrests his view. 
He cries, *' Grandpa, what wounded you?" 

'' My child, 'tis five-and-fifty years 

This very day, this very hour. 
Since from a scene of blood and tears 

Where valor fell by hostile power, 
I saw retire the setting sun 
Behind the hills of Lexington ; 
While pale and lifeless on the plain 
My brothers lay, for freedom slain. 

1 The above poem, written many years ago by Miss H. F. Gould of Newbury- 
port, refers to her father, Captain Benjamin Gould, and his little grandson, now 
Dr. Benjamin A. Gould, the astronomer. 

141 



142 THE STORY OF PATRIOTS DAY 

And ere that fight — the first that spoke 

In thunder to our land — was o'er, 
Amid the clouds of fire and smoke, 
I felt my garments wet with gore. 
'Tis since that dread and wild affray, 
That trying, dark, eventful day. 
From this calm April eve so far, 
I wear upon my cheek the scar. 

When thou to manhood shalt be grown, 

And I am gone in dust to sleep. 
May freedom's rights be still thine own, 

And thou and thine in quiet reap 
The unblighted product of the toil 
In which my blood bedewed the soil ; 
And while those fruits thou shalt enjoy, 
Bethink thee of 'this scar, my boy. 

But should thy country's voice be heard 

To bid her children fly to arms, 
Gird on thy grandsire's trusty sword. 
And, undismayed by war's alarms. 
Remember, on the battle-field, 
I made the hand of God my shield ! 
And be thou spared, like me, to tell 
What bore thee up, while others fell." 



THE BUZZ-SAW 

[By Paul West.'] 

A CONFUSION OF BATTLES 

It was very nearly midnight, 

On the streets of Boston town ; 
Only now and then a person 

Was there walking up and down ; 
But there came a roving spirit 

From the shades of long ago, 
And he scanned the people's faces 

As they passed him to and fro. 

" I have ridden," he was musing, 

"Many miles since yesterday, 
To get tidings for my people 

Of that awful English fray. 
They've been fighting out at Concord, 

And at Lexington the gore 
Of the patriots stains the meadows. 

It is war, most bitter war." 
143 



144 I'HE STORY OF PATRIOTS DAY • 

It was plain to those who saw him 

That the shade was not ate fait. 
He imagined he was living 

In a long-transpired day. 
He was talking of the battles 

That have furnished many a rhyme. 
He had no thought of the seasons, 

Of the passing on of time. 

Down the street there came a person, 

Clad in " sporty " raiment he, 
With a diamond on his bosom — 

" Flash " in his entirety. 
" Tell me, tell me," quoth the spirit, 

As approached the stranger near, 
"Tell me how the battle goeth. 

We have lost, I greatly fear ! 

" I have ridden from a distance, 

For my patriot comrades* sake, 
To inquire about this battle. 

And return ere day shall break. 
Have we won, or have the others 

Stained the greensward with our life ? 
Tell me, tell me, have we licked them 

In this bloody, bloody strife .? " 



THE BUZZ-SAW I45 

" Well," the stranger said, " 'twas dis way : 

Fust it looked as dough de coon 
Didn't have no chance o' winnin', 

But would give out pooty soon. 
But he kept on gittin' * foxy,' 

An' at last de jaw he foun*, 
An' he knocked de odder silly — 

Did him up in sixteen roun'." 

Then the shade's eyes bulged and glittered. 

" Hold," he said. " I do not know 
Why you twit me with such stories, — 

Sure they fill me full of woe. 
Are you talking of the battle, 

Out at Concord in the night ? " 
"Naw," the sport said. "I am chirpin* 

Of de Tracey-Wolcott fight ! " 



CONCORD RIVER 

■ [By Isador H. Coriat.'] 

Upon that rustic bridge I stood, 
Where once those brave men shed their blood; 
*Twas here that Freedom's seeds were sowed, 
Where Concord, lovely Concord, flowed. 

The heaven's splendid sanguine hue, 

Slow changed into a sapphire blue, 

And its reflection dimly showed 

Where Concord, mirrored Concord, glowed. 

The stars of evening sparkled clear ; 
The hills, the fields, the roadways drear. 
No more with the dying daylight glowed, 
Where Concord, silent Concord, flowed. 

I thought on those whose souls had fled, 
Who rest now with the mighty dead 
In their sequestered, dark abode. 
Where Concord, slumbering Concord, flowed. 
146 



CONCORD RIVER I49 

I thought upon that happy seer 
Who wrote with neither scorn nor fear, 
Who dwelt serene in his abode, 
Where Concord, holy Concord, flowed. 

I thought on him whose charming pen 
Had analyzed the souls of men, 
And of the Manse, near by the road. 
Where Concord, classic Concord, flowed. 

Upon that woodland sage I thought, 
Who after Nature's secret sought ; 
Whose life-stream in his plain abode. 
Like Concord, placid Concord, flowed 

They all now sleep in heavenly peace 
'Neath Sleepy Hollow's moaning trees ; 
Make Thou, O God, my last repose 
Quiet as lovely Concord flows. 



THE NINETEENTH OF APRIL 

[By Joseph A. Watson.'\ 

What old North Ender, born below 
The chimes of Christ Church steeple, 

But feels within his bosom glow 
The soul of those brave people 

Who, farther back than " seventy-six," 
Were vexed about some taxes, 

And put King George in such a fix 
By stirring tea with axes ! 

A hundred years and more have fled 

Since, on that April morning. 
Men, numbered never with the dead. 

Heard Paul Revere's bold warning. 

Ah, those true men who shed their blood, 
On heights lived, not in hollows ; 

And on the " bridge that arched the flood " 
They fired — you know what follows. 

150 



LEXINGTON 1 5 1 

What dearer thing by poets sung — \ 

Its spirit shines unrusted — | 

Than the "ole queen's-arm that Gran^ther Young ] 
Fetched back from Concord busted " ? 

But though 'tis busted, I aver \ 

It speaks right on forever : ^ 

"Be patriots as your grandsires were ? • 

Be less than free men never ! " . i 



LEXINGTON 1 

[By Miriam Lester."] 

We name our heroes in the hush 
That follows battle's awful roar, 
And count the cost of that great rush 
To victory ! They deemed no more 
Than just, the simple right to shed 
Their blood in such a holy cause. 

1 Poem written for the celebration of the One Hundred and Nineteenth Anni- 
versary of the Battle of Lexington, and read before the Daughters of the Ameri- 
can Revolution at Kendall Green (Washington, D. C), April 19, 1894. 



152 THE STORY OF PATRIOTS DAY 

Where the unconquered died or bled 
We turn, from our safe ground, and pause 
To wonder how, in days long gone, 
Such power was given to right the wrong ! 

We deem them worthy of all praise, 
The heroes of that battlefield ; 
And looking backward to those days, 
.That meed of praise most gladly yield. 
Were they more true to dictates bold 
Of honor in that olden time ? 
Or, when the weight of proof is told, 
Rang out the truth in purer chime ? 
Gave they more freely of life's stream 
Than we would do ? — than we dare dream ? 

They did not flinch when in the wage 

Of war stern duty's standard waved. 

But heart and hand did both engage. 

And on each soul was deep engraved 

*' Country and Home ! " fit words to urge 

To action more heroic still. 

As o'er that ocean's mighty surge 

Rang out the watchword of their will ! 

As onward pressed to Liberty 

The men through whom we now are free ! 



LEXINGTON 1 53 

In conflict rang their cry of might, ; 

" Ours is the cause that must be Won ; 
God is the helper of the right." 
So sped the word at Lexington, 
While hurrying from peaceful plough 
To war's red-stainM field they came. 
Not theirs 'neath tyranny to bow ; 
Not theirs a country's death and shame; 
But to go on to greater height 
With wing outspread for purer flight. 

Hail; heroes in our country's need, 
We bring ye wreaths of laurel-leaves ; 
We gather of the scattered seed 
In full and ripened harvest sheaves. 
Yours be it e'er to lift our minds 
To realms of higher deed and thought ; 
Be ours to loose what here but binds 
And holds us from the object sought. 
Then may we hope, in time, to stand 
As stanch and true as that brave band. 
To-day, as meet, we hold this page 
Of history before the world ; 
While overhead, undimmed by age. 
Our country's flag is all unfurled. 



154 



THE STORY OF PATRIOTS DAY 



O emblem of sweet Freedom's gift, 

Not Vainly are thy stars displayed. 

To thee our eyes with pride we lift ; 

Thy Stars and Stripes our strength have made. 

Hail, heroes of brave deeds well done, 

Hail, day that gave us Lexington. 




SUPPLEMENT 



CELEBRATIONS 

OF THE 

FIRST "PATRIOTS' DAY" 
1894 



CELEBRATIONS OF THE FIRST PATRIOTS' DAY 

The first proclamation for the new holiday in the 
good Commonwealth of Massachusetts was issued on 
the nth of April, 1894. There was no form of cel- 
ebration to serve as a precedent in its observance, and 
the time was short for suitable consideration. The 
name and purpose of the holiday gave wide scope in 
the manner of keeping it ; which actually, in different 
organizations and communities, varied from religious 
meetings and social and literary gatherings to public 
balls and private dancing-parties, tennis, golf, crickety 
and other games ; races, regattas, fireworks, with 
band music and bell-ringing, salutes, military parades, 
and sham fights, — thus ranging in character from, 
that of the time-honored Fast Day, whose place the 
new holiday has taken, to that of the Fourth of July 
and the old Muster Day. 

Of the nearly four hundred cities and towns in the 
State, there were many which took little note of 
the day because of a lack of habit and the absence 
of any conventional form of observance. It will be 
interesting to mark the features of the celebrations 
held on this first occurrence of the day ; and they 
may prove useful in suggesting forms of celebration 
for future years. 

The initial observance of the day, on the scene of 
the important events of the original and unproclaimed 
" Patriots' Day," was ushered in by a meeting on the 
evening of the i8th of April at the Old North Church 

157 



158 THE STORY OF PATRIOTS* DAY 

(Christ Church) in Salem Street, Boston, which was 
at once a congratulatory occasion celebrating the 
restoration to a condition of use of its ancient and ex- 
cellent chimes, and a commemoration of the hanging 
in the tower of the church the two signal lanterns 
which informed Paul Revere, the chief herald of Rev- 
olutionary events, of the route the troops were taking. 
Seated in or near the chancel were the governor and 
other State dignitaries, with quite a number of the 
leading clergymen and citizens of Boston, several of 
whom addressed the meeting. The Rev. Dr. S. F. 
Smith, author of " America," presented a new poem,^ 
relating to the signal lanterns and the messenger. The 
most striking, as well as the most pleasing, feature 
of the evening to the outside congregation occurred 
at the close of the exercises in the audience room, 
when two lanterns were carried through the church 
to the belfry by the sexton, who was followed by 
the members of the Old Colony Guild of Bell Ringers 
(of tower chimes). The lanterns were hung from the 
same window as in 1775 ; and then the peals from 
the chimes began, rolling their impressive, suggestive, 
and delightful melody over the north end of the city 
and to the shores across the Charles and the inner 
harbor. 

The signal was observed, as of yore, and a wait- 
ing horseman then imitated the galloping ride of Paul 
Revere ; and his shouts of alarm were as numerously 
heard, if not as terrifying, as those of the Revolution-, 
ary messenger. 

CONCORD. 

But Concord and Lexington certainly should be 
points of chief attention. The programme of Con- 

1 Given among the poems of the day in this volume. 



CELEBRATIONS OF THE FIRST PATRIOTS* DAY 1 59 

cord's celebration was carried out as follows : The 
red, white, and blue floated from every available point ; 
and bunting greeted the eye on every hand, especially 
in the historic localities. At sunrise the bells were 
rung, and the Concord Independent Battery fired a 
salute of fifty guns from the hill overlooking the vil- 
lage. At noon a salute of nineteen guns was fired, 
and the bells rung. At six o'clock the final salute 
of fifty guns was given, while the bells again pealed 
out. There was band music at intervals at various 
points through the day, a formal concert being given 
on Monument Square at one o'clock. Other events 
of the day were a military parade by the third bat- 
talion of the sixth regiment at 8.45 a.m. ; the sham 
fight between a body of militia representing the Pro- 
vincials and a large company of colored soldiers repre- 
senting the British ; another general parade at 2 p.m., 
culminating in a reception to the governor and other 
distinguished guests; at 12 m. the Massachusetts 
Society of the Sons of the American Revolution held 
its sixth annual meeting, which was concluded by a 
dinner with speeches ; and a concert and ball in the 
town hall completed the festivities of the day. 

LEXINGTON. 

From early morning until late m the afternoon, 
Massachusetts Avenue, leading from Boston through 
Cambridge and Arlington to the historic centres of 
Lexington and Concord, the route of the British troops 
one hundred and nineteen years before, was crowded 
with pleasure vehicles of all sorts, equestrians, pedes- 
trians, and bicycles. Public buildings, business blocks, 
and many dwellings were decorated, and flags and 
colored draperies were plentiful. The celebration in 



l60 THE STORY OF PATRIOTS* DAY 

Lexington began early in the morning, when the Lex- 
ington drum-corps and the color-guard of the public 
schools marched over the route taken by the " red- 
coats " on that most memorable 19th of April, and 
awaked \.\i&fin de sihle inhabitants from their peaceful 
slumbers. At ten o'clock the governor and his party 
arrived by the railway, and were met at the station by 
a division from the Grand Army, and a detachment 
from the Naval Brigade, — the line proceeding to the 
Common,- — the old Lexington Green. Here all who 
could, of the procession and people, entered the Han- 
cock Church, where music and addresses were in 
course ; while the overflow of people was entertained 
by an out-door band concert, the latter. being repeated 
at intervals through the day. A light lunch was 
served to the guests at the Old Belfry Club House, 
followed by a drive in the suburbs ; afterward they, 
with a large number of others, enjoyed a banquet 
and speeches in the Town Hall. There were also 
several private entertainments during the day. The 
celebration closed with a grand civic ball. 

BOSTON. 

At sunrise bells were rung, and flags were displayed 
on all city buildings and on the public staffs. There 
were also many private flags flying. At 10 a.m. dedi- 
catory exercises were held in the new Agassiz school- 
house in Jamaica Plain. At 10.30 commenced a twelve- 
oared barge race for amateurs on Charles River, three 
hundred dollars in trophies being given as prizes. At 
12 M. there was a salute of one hundred guns fired on 
the Common by a battery of artillery, together with 
ringing of bells. From 3.30 to 5.30 p.m. there was a 
band concert on the Common. At sunset the bells 



CELEBRATIONS OF THE FIRST PATRIOTS' DAY l6l 

were rung again, ending the municipal celebration. 
Many organizations observed the day, among which 
were the Daughters of the American Revolution (Old 
South Meeting-house), Tenth Mass. Battery Associa- 
tion (sixteenth annual reunion and dinner), Second 
Light Battery Association (annual reunion and din- 
ner). King's Daughters and Sons (oratorical and liter- 
ary entertainment for the benefit of their -State 
headquarters). Ladies' Aid Society (festival in aid of 
St. Mary's Infant Asylum), and others. There were 
also many private entertainments during day and 
evening. 

In Worcester the first observance of Patriots' Day 
began at midnight, when a Paul Revere, in Colonial 
costume, on a white horse, rode through many of the 
streets on the west side of the city, awakening the 
residents with pistol-shots and calls to arms. Through 
the day and evening there were many entertainments 
and celebrations of various kinds by organizations and 
private persons. 

In Salem Patriots' Day was celebrated in a moderate 
way. All of the church-bells were rung at morning, 
noon, and evening, and salutes were fired. Entertain- 
ments were given in all of the principal halls, and 
several dances were held. ^ 

In Lowell business was generally suspended. The 
national colors were displayed on all public buildings, 
Grand Army halls, public and parochial schools, and 
upon the flagstaffs on the commons. Exercises were 
held by various organizations. 

Fitchburg had slight local observance, its military 
organizations passing the day at Concord. 

In Lynn Patriots' Day was quietly observed. Busi- 
ness was largely suspended, the factories and stores 
being closed, and people went in numbers to Concord 
and Lexington. 



l62 THE STORY OF PATRIOTS* DAY 

In Dedham Patriots' Day was a great day, and Tjnly 
when its two hundred and fiftieth anniversary was ob- 
served has it witnessed so successful a celebration of 
any one day or occasion. 

In Peabody the old Lexington monument, where the 
minute-men assembled at the summons of Gideon Fos- 
ter, was decorated in honor of the new holiday. 

In Sudbury the public schools held exercises com- 
memorative of the day. 

The Beverly Historical Society celebrated Patriots* 
Day in an appropriate manner, which included ad- 
dresses and an oration. 

At Bedford a company of children with cornet and 
drums turned out and marched to the old village burial- 
ground, where they rendered selections of national airs, 
while the town's committee placed flags on the graves 
of those who participated in the experiences of one 
hundred and nineteen years ago. 

From Lawrence, twenty miles from Concord, a long 
cavalcade traversed the route of the British, attended 
by a band of music, also mounted. 

At Cambridge the public schools were closed, and 
all the public buildings and many private ones were 
decorated. The Lafayette Club, composed of French- 
Americans, held a patriotic public meeting, which was 
largely attended. 

In Waltham Patriots' Day was observed in a quiet 
manner. Business was almost entirely suspended, and 
hundreds went to Lexington and Concord. The Em- 
met Literary Association presented Arrak na Pogue 
at the Park Theatre afternoon and evening. 

In Arlington there was a meeting of the Improve- 
ment Association in the Town Hall in the evening, 
which was addressed by leading citizens. 

In Acton business was suspended, and nearly all 



CELEBRATIONS OF THE FIRST PATRIOTS' DAY 1 63 

the inhabitants joined with Concord in its celebration. 
But the bells were rung at morning, noon, and night, 
and there was an entertainment at the Town Hall in 
the evening. 

In the town of Wellesley the day was not greatly 
observed. In the evening, however, the members of 
the college community (Wellesley College — female), 
with a few invited guests, assembled in the chapel for 
the appointed special service. After an organ pre- 
lude. Prof. Margaret E. Stratton read the governor s 
proclamation of " Patriots' Day," and the Beethoven 
Club sang The Star-spangled Banner, the audience 
joining in the chorus. The venerable Rev. Dr. Webb 
offered prayer, which was followed by an address from 
Rev. Edward G. Porter, D.D., of Lexington; who, by 
the aid of a chart, gave an account of the country 
from Boston to Lexington, and of the principal events 
which occurred at different points. At the close of 
the address the audience sang America, and a bene- 
diction then closed the observance. ^ ^ _ 

The foregoing accounts embrace all the varieties m 
celebration (not all the celebrations) which have come 
to notice. Formerly, in the interior towns, the obser- 
vances of Fast Day were generally religious meetings 
and ball-games, with here and there public and private 
dances; and Patriots' Day merely had fewer of the 
meetings and more ball-playing. Bicycles, a recent 
feature of the country roads, were more numerous 
than ever before, and in some localities were quite 
impressive in their processions and evolutions. 



OBSERVANCE BY SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONS OF 
PATRIOTS' DAY 

The Massachusetts Society of the Sons of the 
American Revolution, at noon of the 19th, held a 
reunion in the First Parish Church in Concord, where 
the first Provincial Congress was held. It was voted 
to petition the Boston city government to mark the 
graves of Revolutionary soldiers, sailors, and patriots 
in that city, the number of graves being estimated at 
scarcely more than one hundred. It was thought this 
might be accomplished before another recurrence of 
this holiday. Some routine business was transacted ; 
and the society and its guests, to the number of 
about three hundred, then enjoyed a dinner in the 
vestry, enlivened by speeches from persons eminent 
in the State and Nation. 

The Ohio Society of the Sons of the American 
Revolution celebrated the battles of Lexington and 
Concord at Columbus, Ohio, on the evening of the 
19th of April. Governor McKinley spoke to the 
toast, "Ohio, an empire founded by the heroes of 
the American Revolution." There were several other 
speeches by eminent men. 

The Daughters of the Revolution, Massachusetts 
chapter, met, on the afternoon of Patriots' Day, at 
Ruby Parlors, 62 Beacon Street. Mrs. William Lee, 
the State regent, who presided, made an address and 
related the history of the association, paying tribute 
to Mrs. Jane G. Austen, the novelist, a member 
recently deceased. A paper upon the life and deeds 

164 



OBSERVANCE BY SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONS 165 

of Paul Revere was read by Elbridge H. Goss, his 
biographer ; Rev. Dr. Edward Everett Hale spoke 
about the hymn America ; and Miss Charlotte W. 
Hawes spoke about the chime bells of Christ Church. 
Refreshments and a social reception followed, closing 
the occasion. 

THE DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 

A new chapter of this organization was formed on 
April 15, in Boston, and adopted the name "Paul 
Revere." This chapter, with visiting members of the 
society from other States, attended the meeting held 
by the Warren and Prescott chapters at the Old 
South Meeting-house, at 11.30 A. m., on Patriots' Day, 
to commemorate the deeds of April 19, 1775. Samuel 
Eliot, LL.D., presided. There were orchestral and 
vocal music, and addresses by the president of the 
day, by Prof. Edward Channing of Harvard Uni- 
versity, and Dr. Edward Everett Hale. These were 
followed by the reading of an original poem, entitled 
Our Country, by Mrs. Julia Ward Howe ; and Rev. 
Dr. S. F. Smith told, in a very interesting way, of 
how America was written. 

In New York City the day was appropriately cele- 
brated by the city chapter of the Daughters of the 
American Revolution, the meeting being held in the 
old Fraunce Tavern, at the corner of Broad and Pearl 
streets, where General Washington gathered his gen- 
erals on the day in which the British evacuated the 
city. The tavern was profusely decorated with Ameri- 
can flags, palms, and lilies. Tiie occasion included the 
reading of an address by Mrs. Schuyler Hamilton, of 
a poem by Miss Clinton Jones, and patriotic songs. 
It was the third anniversary of this chapter. On the 



t66 THE STORY OF PATRIOTS' DAY 

same day the general society of the Daughters met 
at a kmcheon in the gold-and-white ballroom of the 
Waldorf, in celebration of the battle of Lexington. 
One hundred patriotic women were ranged about a 
horseshoe table, and beside each plate was a bouquet 
of daffodils tied with blue ribbon. 

The Colonial Society of Massachusetts held its April 
meeting on Patriots' Day, in the hall of the Ameri- 
can Academy of Arts and Sciences. The principal 
feature of the occasion was the address of Dr. 
Edward G. Porter on the affair at Lexington and 
Concord, who confined his treatment to the happenings 
between Lexington Green and Concord Bridge, which 
he related in minute detail. In the afternoon a 
Colonial party was given at Hendrie Hall, Dorches- 
ter. The halls were lavishly decorated with laurel, 
palms, and flowers, while the two balconies were ef- 
fectively draped with large flags. The invitations 
were etched on parchment, the upper right-hand cor- 
ner bearing a sketch of the figure of a ** minute- 
man." The document was sealed and tied with the 
national colors. The orders were little American 
flags with the programme attached. The assembly 
danced until the sun had set. The affair was pro- 
nounced a grand success. 

THE king's daughters, 

on the afternoon of the 19th, gave a patriotic enter- 
tainment at the People's Church, in Boston, for the 
benefit of the State headquarters of the International 
Order of the King's Daughters and Sons. The broad 
platform was appropriately decorated with flags, and 
with the oil portraits of General Washington and 
his wife. On the platform were Rev. Drs. Edward 



OBSERVANCE BY SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONS 167 

Everett Hale and S. F. Smith, Julia Ward Howe, 
Miss Charlotte Hawes, and Miss Gertrude E. Smith, 
who each took part in the exercises, — Dr. Smith read- 
ing a new hymn,^ written for the occasion. Two 
young ladies, Misses Whittier and Stephen, added 
greatly to the entertainment by their delightful sing- 
ing. The presiding genius of the day was Mrs. 
Charlotte S. Doolittle, who stands at the head of 
the twenty thousand King's Daughters in Massa- 
chusetts. 

THE DAUGHTERS OF VERMONT, 

resident in Boston and vicinity, held a reception in 
the state apartments at the Hotel Vendome on the 
eve of Patriots' Day, which was attended by many 
New England ladies and gentlemen of eminence. 

In a rear apartment refreshments were served by 
groups of fair young girls, either daughters or grand- 
daughters of Vermont. The Symphony Mandolin and 
Guitar Club rendered a light music that proved very 
suitable and delightful. 

1 This hymn opens the poetical portion of this volume. 



MILITARY ORGANIZATIONS 

THE ANCIENT AND HONORABLE ARTILLERY COMPANY 

was already " ancient " when the battles of Lexing- 
ton and Concord became incidents of history ; and it 
was quite fitting that its members should observe 
Patriots' Day. This they did, to the number of a 
hundred and fifty, by a banquet at the Quincy 
House, a band playing national and patriotic airs 
in the intervals between the speeches. 

The annual reunion and thirtieth anniversary of 
the Second Light Battery Association, which includes 
Battery B, M.V.M., and Company A, Forty-second Mas- 
sachusetts Volunteers, was held in the Crawford House 
on the 19th. 

The sixteenth annual reunion and dinner of the 
Tenth Massachusetts Light Battery Association took 
place at the American House in the afternoon, about 
fifty comrades participating. 

Company A, Ninth Infantry, Captain Keefe, ob- 
served Patriots' Day by partaking of its annual dinner 
in the evening in the American House. 

16S 



BENEVOLENT AND RELIGIOUS ASSOCIATIONS. 

Several benevolent associations in Boston and neigh- 
boring places held receptions and entertainments for 
their institutions and patrons, in some cases success- 
fully seeking pecuniary aid. The most notable and 
extensive of these, whose report has come to hand, 
was that of St. Mary's Infant Asylum, held at the 
East Armory, Boston. There were a large number 
of tables with articles for sale ; and for entertain- 
ment, there were, in the afternoon, social dancing, 
with orchestral music, also scarf and other spectacu- 
lar dances, and songs by little girls ; in the even- 
ing, Spanish dances by eight little girls, and by 
professionals from the new Bijou Theatre, interspersed 
with superior vocal music. 

The parishioners of St. Augustine's Church (Roman 
Catholic), in South Boston, celebrated the day in a 
quiet and patriotic manner, listening to national songs 
rendered by the St. Augustine Glee Club, assisted 
by a chorus of two hundred children dressed in red, 
white, and blue, and to a lecture by Hon. Thomas 
J. Gargan on *' The Obligations of Catholics as Citi- 
zens of the Republic." In his peroration the orator 
said : — 

"We may not be called upon to make sacrifices 
upon the field of battle like the men of the Revolu- 
tion, or the men who fought to keep the Union 
whole; yet every generation must fight the battle 
for the right ; we must preserve the patrimony that 
came to us from our ancestors, and transmit it un- 
impaired to succeeding generations, to the end that 
the dignity, the credit, and the honor of this govern- 
ment of the people may be maintained." 

169 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

OF THE 

NINETEENTH OF APRIL, 1775. \ 

Bancroft's History of the United States. \ 
HiLDRETH's History of the United States, 
Elliott's History of N'ew England. 

Palfrey's History of Nerv England. \ 
Adams's History of New England. \ 
Austin's History of Massachusetts. Illustrated. 1 
Varney's Gazetteer of Massachttsetts. Illustrated. • 
Shattuck's History of Concord^ Mass. Illustrated. I 
Hudson's History of Lexington^ Mass. Illustrated. i 
Frothingham's -SzV^^ o/i5^j/^«, 1849-1873. Illustrated. ] 
Goss'^ Life of Col. Paul .Revere. 1891. Many illustrations. i 
Edward Everett's Mowit Vernon Papers. \ 
Edward E. Hale's One Hundred Years Ago. ! 
LossiNG's Field-Book of the Revolution. Illustrated. 1 
Drake's History of Middlesex County. Illustrated. i 
Drake's Historic Scenes and Mansions of Middlesex County. Illus- 
trated. ! 
Howells's Three Villages. 

Bartlett's Concord Guide-Book. 1887. Illustrated. ^ 
Handbook of Lexington. Boston, 1891. Illustrated. j 
Souvenir of 7775. By RE^^ Edward G. Porter and H. M. Steven- 
son. 1875. Illustrated. ! 



Cooper's *' Lionel Lincoln " has a vivid account of the day as a setting; 
for certain characters in that novel. 

For a more thorough investigation, consult in addition the histories of 
Cambridge, Somerville, Arlington, Lincoln, Bedford, Acton, and Sud- 
bury; also *' The Reader's Handbook of the Revolution," by Justin Win- 
sor (Boston, 1880), and "The Nineteenth of April in Literature," by 
James L. Whitney (Concord, Mass., 1876). The last two volumes men- 
tion pamphlets, magazine aiticles, and manuscripts, as well as books. 

170 



-V, 



